Return to CounterHeg Home
Word.

Intro.
White America: Is Eminem CounterHeg?
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

The connection between these two bits may seem stretched, but are
essentially two distinct ways of approaching the same issue. In White
America, Eminem argues, "surely hip hop was never a problem in Harlem only
in Boston" and "See the problem is I speak to suburban kids who otherwise
woulda never knew these words exist." In her globally influential
reflection, Peggy McIntosh understands racism as "invisible systems
conferring dominance on my group." As I see it, she asks why "Boston" is so
afraid of "Harlem."

These are tricky issues for most peoples and I think both get dangerously
close to some core values of American- / Capitalist- hegemony. One trick
they've (“they” being any number of institutions – governments, bosses,
managers, even union leaders) consciously used since the dawn of capitalism
itself is divide and rule. Racial differences are generally constructed to
appear "natural" and therefore operate very close to our identities. Those
differences are then used in various cultural forms to articulate some
hierarchical power relationships, even though they logically suggest no such
thing. In culture this operates more or less subtly; 50 years ago
dictionaries used to define the color “black” with words like evil, dark,
dangerous, etc. and “white” with words like clean, good, gentle, etc. The
words still have these connotations. Recently, we’ve seen racial
differences naturalized hierarchically in everything from blaxploitation
film in the 70’s (and now) to the new code word “welfare cheats” that many
whites understand to mean “single black mothers.” Whenever these sorts of
things are challenged as “racist” those in power swiftly take on the debate,
loving every second of it so long as a) the issues never get resolved; b)
the actual economic and political positions of minorities never rise
substantially; and c) the connections between race and class are never
seriously addressed (for example, so long crime is relegated to being a
“black thing,” it never gets understood as a “poor person’s thing” or even
in other areas, like “a corporation’s thing” or “ a billionaire’s thing”).
Enjoy.

You'll notice that articles here are about race and are by white authors. I
do this because I'm white, I know most people on this list are white, and we
are not supposed to talk about these sorts of issues. Well, contraire! We
ought to! Here are two examples of white people grappling with race in a
fairly critical way and who are, in different ways, opening spaces for us to
be critical of our privilege and subverting it with some degree of
effectiveness. Of course there are thousands of black rappers saying
exactly what Eminem is saying, but he's asking why he happens to be the
successful one. Peggy McIntosh says the same thing - she expected her
article to be published, but if a black woman had written it (as many
have!), it would not have gotten much attention.

***

Is Eminem CounterHeg: White America

On the surface, yes. But just because someone knows their position as
commodified resistance, does that mean that the "commodified" element can be
overlooked. I like the message here, but I'm uneasy with the wink wink,
nudge nudge, radical politics -- it seems to articulate anger very well, but
I'm not sure if it leaves many doors open for its appropriation. I just
listened to his whole album and find the whole thing pretty good, but, as
you may expect, am uncomfortable with the misogyny. I think that a lot of
the anti-woman stuff in his art make sense in context with his experience
and his other songs, but taken on their own are quite troubling. The
politics, though, I find hopeful because he takes on his White Privilege
quite directly. I found one mildly interesting article that talks about
these issues at
http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/e/eminem-eminemshow2.shtml that you
might find helpful, too.


Your thoughts? dlesh@hotmail.com

Eminem: White America: Song Lyrics

(Prelude)
America! We love you! How many people are proud to be citizens of this
beautiful country of ours? The stripes and the stars for the rights that men
had died for to protect / The women and men who have broke their necks for
the freedom of speech the United States government has sworn to uphold.
(Yo... I want everybody to listen to the words of this song) or so we’re
told…

Verse 1

I never would’ve dreamed in a million years I’d see, so many motherfuckin’
people who feel like me/ who share the same views and the same exact
beliefs, it’s like a fuckin’ army marchin’ in back of me/ So many lives I
touched, so much anger aimed in no particular direction, just sprays and
sprays/ Straight through your radio waves it plays and plays, till it stays
stuck in your head for days and days/ who woulda thought, standing in this
mirror bleachin’ my hair, with some peroxide, reachin for a t-shirt to wear/
that I would catapult to the forefront of rap like this? How could I predict
my words would have an impact like this/ I must’ve struck a chord, with
somebody up in the office, cuz Congress keeps telling me I ain’t causin’
nuthin’ but problems/ and now they’re sayin’ I’m in trouble with the
government, I’m lovin’ it, I shoveled shit on my life/ and now I’m dumping
it on…

Chorus (X2)

White America!
I could be one of your kids
White America!
Little Eric looks just like this
White America!
Erica loves my shit
I go to TRL, look how many hugs I get

Verse 2

Look at these eyes, baby blue, baby just like yourself, if they were brown
Shady lose, Shady sits on the shelf/ but Shady’s cute, Shady knew that
Shady’s dimples would help, make ladies swoon baby, ooh baby! Look at my
sales/ Lets do the math, If I was black I would’ve sold half, I ain’t have
to graduate from Lincoln High School to know that/ but I could rap, so fuck
school, I’m too cool to go back, gimme the mic, show me where the fuckin’
studio’s at/ When I was underground, no one gave a fuck I was white, no
labels wanted to sign me almost gave up, I was like/ Fuck it, until I met
Dre, the only one to look past, gave me a chance, and I lit a fire up under
his ass/ helped him get back to the top, every fan black that I got was
probably his in exchange for every white fan that he’s got/ Like damn, we
just swapped. Sittin’ back lookin’ at shit, wow, I’m like is my skin is it
starting to work to my benefit now?

Chorus (X2)

Verse 3

See the problem is I speak to suburban kids who otherwise woulda never knew
these words exist/ whose moms probably never woulda gave two squirts of
piss, till I created so much motherfuckin’ turbulence/ straight out the
tube, right into your living room I came, the kids flipped when they knew I
was produced by Dre/ That’s all it took, and they were instantly hooked
right in, and they connected with me too because I look like them/ that’s
why they put my lyrics up under a microscope, searchin’ with a fine tooth
comb, its like this rope/ waitin’ to choke, tightening around my throat,
watching me while I write this, like I don’t like this (Nope)/ All I hear
is: lyrics, lyrics, constant controversy, sponsors working round the clock,
to try to stop my concerts early/ surely hip hop was never a problem in
Harlem only in Boston, after it bothered the fathers of daughters starting
to blossom/ so now I’m catchin’ the flack from these activists when they
raggin’, actin’ like I’m the first rapper to smack a bitch, and say faggot/
shit, just look at me like I’m your closest pal, the posterchild, the
fuckin’ spokesman now for …

Chorus (X2)

(Prologue)

So to the parents of America
I am the derringer aimed at little Erica, to attack her character
The ringleader of this circus of worthless pawns
Set to lead the march right up to the steps of Congress
And piss on the lawns of the White House
and replace it with a Parental Advisory sticker
To spit liquor in the face in this democracy of hypocrisy

Fuck you Ms. Cheney!

Fuck you Tipper Gore!

Fuck you with the freest of speech this divided states of embarassment will
allow me to have,

Fuck you!

I’m just kiddin’ America, you know I love you….


*


White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
http://www.utoronto.ca/acc/events/peggy1.htm

I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in
invisible systems conferring dominance on my group

Peggy McIntosh

Through work to bring materials from women's studies into the rest of the
curriculum, I have often noticed men's unwillingness to grant that they are
overprivileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged.
They may say they will work to improve women's status, in the society, the
university, or the curriculum, but they can't or won't support the idea of
lessening men's. Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of
advantages that men gain from women's disadvantages. These denials protect
male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.

Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized
that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there are most
likely a phenomenon of while privilege that was similarly denied and
protected. As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as
something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see
on of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.

I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as
males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an
untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to
see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can
count on cashing in each day, but about which I was "meant" to remain
oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of
special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and
blank checks.

Describing white privilege makes one newly accountable. As we in Women's
Studies work to reveal male privilege and ask men to give up some of their
power, so one who writes about having white privilege must ask, "Having
described it, what will I do to lessen or end it?"

After I realized the extent to which men work from a base of unacknowledged
privilege, I understood that much of their oppressiveness was unconscious.
Then I remembered the frequent charges from women of color that white women
whom they encounter are oppressive. I began to understand why we are justly
seen as oppressive, even when we don't see ourselves that way. I began to
count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been
conditioned into oblivion about its existence.

My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an
unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture. I was
taught to see myself as an individual whose moral state depended on her
individual moral will. My schooling followed the pattern my colleague
Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives
as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we
work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow "them" to be
more like "us".

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily
effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions which
I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin color privilege than to
class, religion, ethnic status, or geographical location, though of course
all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can see, my
African American coworkers, friends and acquaintances with whom I come into
daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place, and line of work
cannot count on most of these conditions.

I usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or
conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here
work to systematically overempower certain groups. Such privilege simply
confers dominance because of one's race or sex.

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of
the time.
2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure renting or purchasing
housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.
3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral
or pleasant to me.
4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will
not be followed or harassed.
5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and
see people of my race widely represented.
6. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am
shown that people of my color made it what it is.
7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that
testify to the existence of their race.
8. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece
on white privilege.
9. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race
represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my
cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut
my hair.
10. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin
color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.
11. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who
might not like them.
12. 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.
13. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race
on trial.
14. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit
to my race.
15. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.
16. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color
who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any
penalty for such oblivion.
17. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its
policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.
18. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to "the person in charge," I
will be facing a person of my race.
19. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can
be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
20. I can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards,
dolls, toys, and children's magazines featuring people of my race.
21. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling
somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, out numbered, unheard,
held at a distance, or feared.
22. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having
coworkers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.
23. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race
cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.
24. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not
work against me.
25. If my day, week, or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative
episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.
26. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in flesh color and have them more
or less match my skin.

I repeatedly forgot each of the realizations on this list until I wrote it
down. For me white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive
subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up
the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free
country; one's life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain
people through no virtues of their own.

In unpacking this invisible knapsack of white privilege, I have listed
conditions of daily experience which I once took for granted. Nor did I
think of any of these prequisites as bad for the holder. I now think that we
need a more finely differentiated taxonomy of privilege, for some of these
varieties are only what one would want for everyone in a just society, and
others give license to be ignorant.

I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of
assumptions which were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main
piece of cultural turf; it was my own turf, and I was among those who could
control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to
want to make. I could think of myself as belonging in major ways, and of
making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect,
or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms. Being of
the main culture, I could also criticize it fairly freely.

In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and
oblivious, other groups were likely being made unconfident, uncomfortable,
and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility,
distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit in turn
upon people of color. For this reason, the word "privilege" now seems to me
misleading. We want, then, to distinguish between earned strength and
unearned power conferred systematically. Power from unearned privilege can
look like strength when it is in fact permission to escape or to dominate.
But not all of the privileges on my list are inevitably damaging. Some, like
the expectation that neighbors will be decent to you, or that your race will
not count against you in court, should be the norm in a just society.
Others, like the privilege to ignore less powerful people, distort the
humanity of the holders as well as the ignored groups.

We might at least start by distinguishing between positive advantages which
we can work to spread, and negative types of advantages which unless
rejected will always reinforce our present hierarchies. For example, the
feeling that one belongs within the human circle, as Native Americans say,
should not be seen as privilege for a few. Ideally it is an unearned
entitlement. At present, since only a few have it, it is an unearned
advantage for them. This paper results from a process of coming to see that
some of the power which I originally saw as attendant on being a human being
in the U.S. consisted in unearned advantage and conferred dominance.

I have met very few men who are truly distressed about systemic, unearned
male advantage and conferred dominance. And so one question for me and
others like me is whether we will be like them, or whether we will get truly
distressed, even outraged, about unearned race advantage and conferred
dominance and if so, what we will do to lessen them. In any case, we need to
do more work in identifying how they actually affect our daily lives. Many,
perhaps most, of our white students in the U.S. think that racism doesn't
affect them because they are not people of color; they do not see
"whiteness" as a racial identity. In addition, since race and sex are not
the only advantaging systems at work, we need similarly to examine the daily
experience of having age advantage, or ethnic advantage, or physical
ability, or advantage related to nationality, religion, or sexual
orientation.

Difficulties and dangers surrounding the task of finding parallels are many.
Since racism, sexism, and heterosexism are not the same, the advantaging
associated with them should not be seen as the same. In addition, it is hard
to disentangle aspects of unearned advantage which rest more on social
class, economic class, race, religion, sex and ethnic identity than on other
factors. Still, all of the oppressions are interlocking, as the Combahee
River Collective State-ment of 1977 continues to remind us eloquently. One
factor seems clear about all of the interlocking oppressions. They take both
active forms which we can see and embedded forms which as a member of the
dominant group one is taught not to see. In my class and place, I did not
see myself as a racist because I was taught to recognize racism only in
individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible
systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth.

Disapproving of the systems won't be enough to change them. I was taught to
think that racism could end if white individuals changed their attitudes.
But a white skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or
not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us. Individual
acts can palliate, but cannot end, these problems.

To redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal
unseen dimensions. The silences and denials surrounding privilege are the
key political tool here. They keep the thinking about equality or equity
incomplete, protecting unearned advantage and conferred dominance by making
these taboo subjects. Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to
be now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of
dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist.

It seems to me that obliviousness about white advantage, like obliviousness
about male advantage, is kept strongly inculturated in the United States so
as to maintain the myth of meritocracy, the myth that democratic choice is
equally available to all. Keeping most people unaware that freedom of
confident action is there for just a small number of people props up those
in power, and serves to keep power in the hands of the same groups that have
most of it already.

Though systemic change takes many decades, there are pressing questions for
me and I imagine for some others like me if we raise our daily consciousness
on the perquisites of being light skinned. What will we do with such
knowledge? As we know from watching men, it is an open question whether we
will choose to use unearned advantage to weaken hidden systems of advantage,
and whether we will use any of our arbitrarily awarded power to try to
reconstruct power systems on a broader base.

Peggy McIntosh is associate director of the Wellesley Collage Center for
Research on Women. This essay is excerpted from Working Paper 189. "White
Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See
Correspondences through Work in Women's Studies" (1988), by Peggy McIntosh;
available for $4.00 from the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women,
Wellesley MA 02181 The working paper contains a longer list of privileges.

Return to CounterHeg Home