What’s in your invisible backpack?

The Invisible Backpack is an analogy originally developed by anti-racism activist Peggy McIntosh.  Members of a majority culture, like straight white men like me, benefit in many ways from the privileges that accrue to them.  This kind of privilege becomes so pervasive that it feels normal, and in fact doesn’t feel like anything at all.  This is dangerous because it can lead us to believe that racism, sexism, and other exclusionary -isms either don’t exist at all or are not that big a deal.  The glib response of a white person saying “All Lives Matter” to a black person saying “Black Lives Matter” is an example of how the invisible impacts of privilege can cause us to perpetuate systematic racism.

As with anything in our lives that we want to change, the first step is self-awareness.  As Rodgers and Hammerstein bravely stated back all the way back in 1949, You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.  We need to find out exactly what we have been taught to expect of the world, before we can be open to the life experiences of those that were taught very different things.  In order to be a champion of diversity in the workplace, or an agent of social justice in any context, we must become aware of those experiences and attitudes that have become second nature to us.  The concept of the Invisible Backpack, and the simple self-examination that accompanies it, can help us to get started.

Take the survey below to find out more about your invisible backpack.