It is not necessarily a privilege to be white, but it certainly has its benefits. That’s why so many of our families gave up their unique histories, primary languages, accents, distinctive dress, family names and cultural expressions. Giving these up seemed like a small price to pay for acceptance in the circle of whiteness. Even with these sacrifices, it wasn’t easy to pass as white if we were Italian, Greek, Irish, Jewish, Spanish, Hungarian or Polish. Sometimes it took generations before our families were fully accepted, and then it was usually because white society had an even greater fear of darker-skinned people.

Privileges

Privileges are the economic extras that those of us who are middle-class and wealthy gain at the expense of poor and working class people of all races. 

Benefits

Benefits, on the other hand, are the advantages that all white people gain at the expense of people of color regardless of economic position. Talk about racial benefits can ring false to many of us who don’t have the economic privileges that we see others in this society enjoying. But though we don’t have substantial economic privileges, we do enjoy many of the benefits of being white.

Examples

For the classic article by Peggy McIntosh on Unpacking the Knapsack of White Privilege, click here.

Another benefit of being white.

We can generally count on police protection rather than harassment. Depending on our financial situation, we can choose where we want to live and choose safer neighborhoods with better schools. We are given more attention, respect and status in conversations than People of Color. Nothing that we do is qualified, limited, discredited or acclaimed simply because of our racial background. We don’t have to represent our race, and nothing we do is judged as a credit to our race or as confirmation of its shortcomings or inferiority.

These benefits start early. Others will have higher expectations for us as children, both at home and at school. We will have more money spent on our education, we will be called on more in school and given more opportunity and resources to learn. We will see people like us in textbooks. If we get into trouble, adults will expect us to be able to change and improve and therefore will discipline or penalize us less harshly than children of color.

These benefits accrue and work to the direct economic advantage of every white person in the United States. First of all, we will earn more in our lifetime than a person of color of similar qualifications. We will be paid $1.00 for every $.60 that a person of color makes. We will advance faster and more reliably and, on average, accumulate many times as much wealth. A white family will, on average accumulate $116,800 in assets, a Black family $1,700, and a Latin@ family slightly more. The gap for single women-headed households is even more stark - in 2007 a white female-headed household had on average $41,000 in assets, a Black female-headed household $100, and a Latina-headed household $120.
 
There are historically derived economic benefits too. All land in the US was taken from Native Americans. Much of the infrastructure of this country was built by slave labor, incredibly low-paid labor or prison labor performed by Men and Women of Color. Much of the housecleaning, child care, cooking and maintenance of our society has been done by low-wage-earning Women of Color. Today Men and Women and Children of Color still do the hardest, lowest-paid, most dangerous work throughout the US. And white people enjoy plentiful and inexpensive food, clothing and consumer goods because of that exploitation.
 

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Louis C.K. explains the benefits of being white.

We have been carefully taught ...

We have been taught history through a white-tinted lens that has minimized the exploitation of People of Color and extolled the hardworking, courageous qualities of white people. For example, many of our foreparents gained a foothold in the US by finding work in trades or occupations that Black workers, who had begun entering many such skilled and unskilled jobs, were either excluded from or pushed out of in the 19th century. Exclusion and discrimination, coupled with immigrant mob violence against Black people in many northern cities meant that recent immigrants had economic opportunities that Black people did not. These gains were consolidated by explicitly racist trade union practices and government policies that kept Black workers in the most unskilled labor and lowest-paid work.
 
It is not that white Americans have not worked hard and built much. We have. But we did not start out from scratch. Much of the rhetoric against more active policies for racial justice stem from the misconception that all people are given equal opportunities and start from a level playing field. We often don’t even see the benefits we have received from racism. We claim that they are not there.

ACTIVITY: The benefit of being white

Paul Kivel says: I FIND IT A CONSTANT EFFORT TO NOTICE that People of Color don’t share many of the economic and other benefits I enjoy from being white. This activity can help white people understand how racism works in our favor, and on many different levels. The exercise is for all white participants, or for mixed groups in which the white people participate and the People of Color observe. Since white privilege—the specific kinds of economic, social, and political advantages that white people gain at the expense of people of color—is generally invisible, this exercise can help those of us who are white see and acknowledge just how extensive and pervasive those benefits are.

FACILITATOR
​GUIDELINES

• Tell the group that you are going to read a series of statements and that each white person to whom a statement applies should stand up after that statement is read.
• Tell the group that all white people are being asked to participate, and people of color are being asked to observe, even if some of the statements might apply to them as well.
• Those who are physically unable to stand may raise their hand, if able to, to indicate that they are part of the group standing.
• The participants should decide for themselves whether the statement applies to them or not.
• If they are unwilling to stand for a particular statement that applies to them, they may pass, but at the same time encourage them to notice any feelings they have about not standing.
• The exercise will be done in silence to allow participants to notice the feelings that come up during the exercise and to make it safer for all participants.
• ​After each statement is read and people have stood for a few moments to reflect, ask the participants to sit down again, then move on to read the next statement.

BEGIN THE
ACTIVITY:
A WHITE BENEFITS
CHECKLIST

The American Indian Movement takeover of Alcatraz Island in 1969.

Federal government housing law led to redlining, a policy where the government and then banks colluded to finance the expansion of white suburbs while refusing to invest in Communities of Color.

Research shows over and over again that the same resumés are judged differently based on the race of the applicant.

• Please stand if:
•  Your ancestors were legal immigrants to this country during a period when immigration from Asia, South and Central America, or Africa was restricted.
• You live on land that formerly belonged to Native Americans.
• Your family received homesteading or landstaking claims from the federal government, or if you or your family or relatives receive or received federal farm subsidies, farm price supports, agricultural extension assistance or other federal benefits.
• You lived or live in a neighborhood that People of Color were discriminated from living in or you lived or live in a city where red-lining discriminates against people of color getting housing or other loans.
• You or your parents went to racially segregated schools.
• You live in a school district or metropolitan area where more money is spent on the schools that white children go to than on those that Children of Color attend.
• You live in or went to a school district where the textbooks and other classroom materials reflected your race as normal, heroes and builders of the United States, and there was little mention of the contributions of People of Color to our society.
• You attended a publicly funded university, or a heavily endowed private university or college, and/or received student loans.
• Your ancestors were immigrants who took jobs in railroads, streetcars, construction, shipbuilding, wagon and coach driving, house painting, tailoring, longshore work, brick laying, table waiting, working in the mills, working as a furrier, dressmaking or any other trade or occupation where People of Color were driven out or excluded.
• You have received a job, job interview, job training or internship through personal connections of family or friends.
• You worked or work in a job where People of Color made less for doing comparable work or did more menial jobs.
• Your parents were able to vote in any election they wanted without worrying about poll taxes, literacy requirements or other forms of discrimination.
• You live in a neighborhood that has better police protection, municipal services and is safer than that where People of Color live.
• You have never had to worry that clearly labeled public facilities, such as swimming pools, restrooms, restaurants and nightspots were in fact not open to you because of your skin color.
• You see white people in a wide variety of roles on television and in movies.
• A substantial percentage of the clothes you wear are made by Women and Children of Color in this country and abroad.
• Most of the food you eat is grown, processed and/or cooked by People of Color in this country and abroad.
• The house, office building, school, or other buildings and grounds you use are cleaned or maintained by People of Color.
• Most of the electronics goods that you use such as cell phones, TVs, microwave ovens, computers, and cameras are made by People of Color in this country and abroad.
• You, other family members, friends or colleagues were ever cared for by People of Color either at home or at a medical or convalescent facility.
• You don’t need to think about race and racism everyday. You can choose when and where you want to respond to racism.

DISCUSSION AND DEBRIEF

After the exercise ask white people to pair with other white people to talk about what feelings and thoughts came up for them participating in the exercise.
 
Ask People of Color to pair with other People of Color to share what came up for them and what it was like to observe white people doing the exercise.
 
Reassemble the group and facilitate an open discussion of the feelings, thoughts, reflections, and insights that people want to share. Some questions you can use to facilitate discussion are:
 

1. What kind of attitudes does the possession of invisible white privilege produce in us and other white people?
2. What kind of attitudes towards People of Color does it produce?
3. What are ways that we and other white people justify our privilege by blaming People of Color and Native Americans?
4. Are there ways that it is hard for us to accept that we and other white people did not fully earn the job opportunities, housing, education, etc. we and they have?
5. What are things that those of us with unearned privilege can do to promote equal opportunity and racial justice?

 
To conclude the discussion tell the group that the purpose of this exercise is not to discount what white people have achieved but to question prevalent assumptions that everyone started out with equal opportunity or that white achievement occurs on a level playing field.

Also remind everyone that although some of the benefits listed above are money in the bank for each and every white person, some white people have bigger bank accounts—much bigger—than the rest. According to 2013 figures, 20 percent of the population controls about 95 percent of the net financial wealth of this country and whites own 90% of the nation’s wealth. White wealth is not evenly distributed. The top 10% of white families own 65.1% of all the wealth while the bottom half of white families own just 2% of the national wealth. All white people own more wealth than their People of Color counterparts. But while we may gain benefits from being white that doesn’t necessarily mean we are well off.

Finally, point out that individual white people are not responsible for the circumstances under which we stood for particular questions in the exercise. We were born into and inherited a system that exploits People of Color and provides benefits to white people whether we want them or not. Individual white people are not responsible for racism—but we are responsible for how we respond to it.