>
> On 18/08/2013, at 6:39 AM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
>
> > The concept comes tends to be used by those familiar with the work of
> Peggy McIntosh who wrote a now nearly three decade old article called
> "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of Privilege". In it, McIntosh details
> the ways in which men experience male privilege and white experience white
> skin privilege.
> >
> > I have several criticisms of the essay but was very curious what others
> think of it. It's a very clean HTML version so it should work for Carrol.
> >
> > <http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html>
> http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html
>
> The list seem to doesn't include skin cancer. Nor the annoying fact that
> racists just assume that they can confide their racist claptrap to other
> white people and we are expected to just listen politely, if not agree
> enthusiastically. And they get really aggro if we don't. I bet they don't
> try that on non-white people
I was thinking recently of how long it's been since I had suffered that injustice. Perhaps we should recognize some progress in that front, even if it's too slow. Justice delayed, etc. :-)
A major theme of the FB thread was how the subject phrase gets used as a self-righteous bludgeon as Joanna describes, almost in contradiction to one of McIntosh's points, about moral will. I'd always thought of it in the terms that Wendy describes, but also seen it used in liberal online forums as a means to pull the plug on discussion.
If you're still wondering why it matters, it's similar to one of things that was so alienating about the science wars back it the day -- the habit of attributing demands for evidence to science's social status as a way of shutting down any response, though the tone was more dismissive than moralistic.
-- Andy "It's a testament to ketchup that there can be no confusion."