"Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" Summary

In the article "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack," by Peggy McIntosh, an associate director of the Wellesley Collage Center for Research on Women, many of the privileges of white people are listed to show how their lives were compared to those of African Americans at the time. She lists 50 of the most common privileges in the article and explains the effects of them. Before she lists these privileges she explains that many of her African American friends and people she works with cannot count on all these points, therefore, making them privileges instead of rights. For example she does not feel pressured to express her thoughts and opinion to a group of people even if they are not of the same race, as stated in point number eight. She continues to describe points dealing with jobs and how she will not considered for a certain job based on her race. Also in points such as number forty-nine, she mentions not only her privileges but privileges given to her children as well such as she knows that her children's teachers will tolerate them and how they are able to learn.