White Privilege: What's in Your Knapsack?

Abstract

As department chairs, few of us claim to be experts in the area of racism and privilege. However, most of us are passionate about equity and justice, and we have had lived experiences in white privilege and racism. I am not a racist, nor am I sexist. These are not binary terms (like good and evil) but they are on a continuum, and I am part of a racist society. I am a white male, and throughout my forty-year career in higher education (twenty-five years serving as department chair and dean), I must admit that, like many others, I have not always been aware of my privilege or of the missteps, blind spots, or micro-aggressions that I may have committed. As a white male, I am in a double bind—a double privilege. Reflecting on my past, am I aware of how privilege has played out over my career? How do I shed some light on and insight into these privileges? As academics, we typically organize our thinking and experiences through theoretical or conceptual frameworks. Anthropologists contend that we learn through story. I use visuals, sometimes a schematic, model, or visualization, to help me understand and internalize my thoughts. The groundbreaking and seminal essay written decades ago by Peggy McIntosh (1989) called attention to an invisible knapsack that we carry around. Visualize this knapsack; it is filled with unearned assets, privileges that we may, unknowingly, cash in on each day. What do I have that I did not earn? Think about the privileges we have not earned. The following are three of McIntosh's fifty. Can you relate to them (McIntosh 1989, 11)? Growing up in the 1950s, the book I was given in grammar school was Dick and Jane, and at night we watched Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver. Why is white privilege so hard to talk about? “White fragility” (DiAngelo 2018) plays into this, the propensity of white people to fend off suggestions of racism. Unfortunately those two words, white and privilege, pack a double whammy. For many it inspires pushback. Does privilege suggest that we have never struggled or worked hard to achieve? This defensiveness serves only to derail the conversation. White privilege does not mean that we have never struggled or that what we have accomplished is totally unearned. However, white privilege has its built-in advantages: having greater access to power and resources than faculty of color or women. As I reflect, I think of ways that I consciously, or unconsciously, enjoyed these privileges. My “double” privilege of being a white male has followed my career. After finishing my graduate work and living in India for a year, my first academic job was heading up a training bureau for new superintendents and principals. The subtext of our program was to try to increase gender equity in a male-dominated profession. What was even more challenging during this era was retaining faculty of color in a predominantly white state with few support systems for black educators. In addition, I had the privilege of being mentored and sponsored by white leaders. This white male mentorship theme continued early in my career when, in 1980, I received a call from a kingmaker dean asking if I would be interested in joining the faculty. When I arrived, I realized that I was the new bright-eyed and bushy-tailed thirty-year-old white faculty member hired by a group of predominately older white male faculty. Nothing new and exciting happened in our department, not until we hired people who didn't look like us and who challenged the norms and the system. Fast-forward to 1998 when I accepted the deanship at another land-grant university. Our greatest challenge and where most of my energy was spent was recruiting diverse students and faculty—in competition with the other state institutions. Then, in 2004, I returned home to California and joined a multicultural campus with social justice sewn into its fabric, and the campus reflected the global diversity of the city. In my first several years, we were successful in hiring faculty of color and attracting a diverse student body. But there is so much more work to do. The list of strategies goes on, and you have your own. Pause and reflect on the ways that you can restructure your personnel practices to advance underrepresented faculty and campus leaders. Personally, ask yourself: What dysfunctional structures do we need to dismantle in our institutions? How can we create systemic changes to advance social justice and equity? There is so much more to understand and do. Although we may have done our best, it is not enough. Take action. Walter H. Gmelch is dean emeritus and professor of leadership studies at the University of San Francisco. Email: whgmelch@ufsca.edu