Unpack that Knapsack: a GWSS Approach

21 yr old, white, cis-gender, mostly straight lady living in America's armpit (Iowa)

[agwssapproach-blog]

Unpacking the “invisible knapsack” and why its /crucial/ for those with privilege to speak up

Heyooooooo.

Welcome to topic number one: the “invisible knapsack”. Today, we’re going to discuss what it is, what it does, how fashionable it is, and what it means for those with the heaviest sack (hehe).

Let’s break this sh*t down.

As defined by Peggy McIntosh in her 1988 essay White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women’s Studies, the “invisible knapsack” is “an invisible weightless knapsack of assurances, tools, maps, guides, codebooks, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks.” But what does this actually mean, like, to me??

The “invisible knapsack” is all of the privilege you receive based on the color of your skin... aka being white in a society that has systematically marked being white as being “superior”. For some (hi dad), the idea of white privilege seems like #fakenews. But, the fact that you can even doubt white privilege’s existence in the first place is a big indicator that you are an owner of that trusty “invisible knapsack”. 

But agwssapproach(dot)tumblr(dot)com, what do you mean that’s a clear illustration of my so called “white privilege”? Well, my one professor reading this blog post because they’re required to as a means to grade my academic work and doesn’t actually have a white privilege knapsack (hi Chris), I am so glad you asked. Having white privilege inherently means that you don’t see all the ways in which you have a mario mushroom 1up on the poc (people of color) of the world. 

Let me explain. Your world view as a white person (if you are a white person) limits what oppression you can see. To pull from my super cool, smart, creative professor (hi Chris), it would be like me asking you to stand across the room from me with the back of my laptop to you, asking you what’s on my screen. From your point of view, you can’t see. From your point of view as a white person (if you’re white), you just can’t see it. It’s in your blind spot. Hoooooowever, much like cars, we do have ways to better check our blind spots. And that’s by unpacking our friggen knapsack, y’all.

What kind of privilege might we find in our knapsacks? To again pull from Peggy McIntosh (White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack), some of the examples she’s listed are as follows: 

“ I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race. 

I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed. “

And those are just 6 of the 50 examples McIntosh gives, and even that list isn’t comprehensive. There’s so many other situations. And they all range from things that are obvious like not fearing police brutality in a standard traffic stop to things we (white people) take for granted all the time, like finding bandaids that are labeled as ‘flesh’ colored and having them more or less match. 

“Alright, agwssapproach(dot)tumblr(dot)com, I accept your notion of white privilege and an ‘invisible knapsack’ but what does that mean for me, a white person?” Well, well, well, my pretend blog followers I comfort myself by pretending I have, let me tell you. 

Speak. The F*ck. Up.

You have the voice in society. Your opinions and values are much more powerful in a white-privilege society than our poc friends, as awful as that is. If their very existence in this country is marginalized, what do you think that means for their voice? For their issues? It isn’t a person of color’s job to explain why their lives matter. POC are already forced to deal with the sh*tty end of the stick in this society, to expect them to try and make white people understand why they’re just as human and just as important as them? I’m sorry (I’m not) but that’s bullsh*t.  With all of the tools and privilege in our little white people knapsacks, we should be working hard to make this country as equal as we can, for everyone. 

If our (white) voices are the ones being listened to, we should be speaking out against acts of injustice and inequality in society. This means being vocal against systematic oppression, against police brutality, against discrimination based on melanin and natural hair, against anti-Muslim (which is a religion btw, but we’ll talk about that another time) rhetoric. Since we’re the ones being heard, respected, privileged, it’s our responsibility to step the f*ck up and do something about it. 

[agwssapproach-blog]

What’s a GWSS and what the f*ck is this blog?

Heyooooo. Welcome to my blog and thanks for stopping by. 

So this blog is/was originally created as a means to fulfill a class requirement for a ‘creative response’ to the materials we’ve been covering in my LGBTQ+/Queer studies class. I’m a 4th year student studying Gender and Women’s Sexuality Studies, aka GWSS (a GWSS approach ayyyeee). But then, y’know, I figured why not keep updating this blog as a means to both try and share the wealth of knowledge my professor is bestowing upon me (what’s good Chris?) but also as a way for me to get some stuff off my chest. Because, lets face it, sometimes this shit is messy and it’s hard to unpack it all without being weighed down by the emotional exhaustion that accompanies it a lot of the time.

As a side note, or, I guess, a kind of marker of who I am and the worldview I have in my little nook of life, I am a white, 21 year old, cis-gendered lady living in Eastern Iowa. I do try pretty hard to be as inclusive, educated, and kind as I can be, but I am a human bean and I am bound to make some mistakes. If something I say rubs you the wrong way, or is plain f*cking stupid, please let me know... but let me know in a way that tries to educate me and not belittle me. I want to learn, but I don’t want to be talked down or ostracized. 

Anywhoooo,

Let’s break this sh*t down.