White Privilege and White Guilt 1
White Privilege and White Guilt 1
White Privilege and White Guilt 1
Simone Kirwan
Faculty of Education
University of Manitoba
WHITE PRIVILEGE AND WHITE GUILT 2
Introduction
and ‘white guilt’. Both these concepts have affected me personally and professionally.
Thus, when I began reading about white privilege, I became very interested in this idea.
However, I was not completed satisfied with the work I was reading because it pertains to
how whites or mainstream peoples gain privilege within a North American context.
and who is also considered to be ‘of colour’ or of ‘visible minority status’, this has not
been my experience. I then pondered the reactions of many middle class, mainstream
(read: white) people that I have met who strive to be sensitive to the plight of others,
politically correct and culturally sensitive, and who profess to being colour-blind, racially
that I have had with these people over many years, I think I have found well-meaning
people to be clumsy, awkward, and sometimes expressing guilt or shame for the
‘supposed’ privilege and status that their skin colour affords them and the historical
oppression against the ‘coloured people’ perpetuated by their putative ancestors. Thus,
with this experience, I want to focus on the idea of white guilt but I wish to balance it
In order to truly understand the meaning of a sociological concept, one must first
provide an operational definition of it. This helps to eliminate confusion and helps keep
people on the same page, so to speak. In order to determine the meaning of white
WHITE PRIVILEGE AND WHITE GUILT 3
privilege, I sought out the work of Peggy McIntosh, author of “White Privilege:
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1988). In this piece, McIntosh (1988) describes
white privilege as “those conditions which [she] think[s ] …attach somewhat more to
skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographical location” (p.
circumstances which are not earned, that have been granted to white people, who are
often considered to be ‘the mainstream’ in Canada and the U.S. Thus, one is born into
white privilege based on the colour of one’s skin and for no other apparent reason. This is
sometimes termed ascribed status, that is, a standing that is innately assigned or
position that has been earned or deserved based on actions of the individual.
White privilege may be contrasted with the notion of white guilt. According to
Shelby Steele (2006), who wrote White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together
Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era, white guilt is:
the vacuum of moral authority that comes from simply knowing that one’s race is
Thus, some white people who are apprised of their experiences of white privilege may
feel badly about the intrinsic benefits they perceive that they obtain simply because they
are ‘white’, and, to compensate for this, they are overly sensitive, extremely aware, or
phenomenon that although real, may not be the most effective way to counterbalance the
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‘coloured’.
In searching for the historical roots of white privilege, I found that the notion of
white privilege can be traced back to the work of W.E.B. DuBois. Dubois was an
African American writer and scholar, who wrote in his book Black Reconstruction: An
Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to
[i]t must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a
low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage.
They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white.
They were admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions,
public parks, and the best schools. The police were drawn from their ranks, and
the courts, dependent on their votes, treated them with such leniency as to
encourage lawlessness. Their vote selected public officials, and while this had
small effect upon the economic situation, it had great effect upon their personal
treatment and the deference shown them. White schoolhouses were the best in the
community, and conspicuously placed, and they cost anywhere from twice to ten
times as much per capita as the colored schools. The newspapers specialized on
news that flattered the poor whites and almost utterly ignored the Negro except in
On the other hand, in the same way, the Negro was subject to public insult; was
afraid of mobs; was liable to the jibes of children and the unreasoning fears of
badges of inferiority. The result of this was that the wages of both classes could
be kept low, the whites fearing to be supplanted by Negro labor, the Negroes
Clearly, DuBois shows that white privilege existed even between the poor whites
and poor blacks. John Garvey and Noel Ignatiev (1996) two outspoken advocates of
[r]ace is inscribed in every issue of the day; indeed politics in the U.S. consists of
a dispute over how to deal with the ‘violent’ black male and the ‘immoral’ black
female. From the other side, every challenge to the prerogatives of whiteness is a
call for the abolition of the ‘white race’… [in order] to focus on whiteness and the
Thus, the desire to rid the world of white privilege is evident, both in the distant
and recent past. For my purposes, I argue that although Canada is obviously different
from the USA, it too has had historical cases of white privilege and racism. Examples of
this include the Chinese Canadians who worked to build the CPR and were not
recognized at the time for their contributions, the Japanese-Canadian internment camps
which during the Second World War confined people of Japanese descent, driving them
out of their homes and forcibly removing their right to property, and the numerous
traumas that were imposed on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples.
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Of course, not everyone who was non-white has suffered terrible trauma, loss of
status, or threat as a result of racism and prejudice. However, non-white people were
often undervalued and not deemed to be equal to whites until recently. In fact, recently
there has been a movement of Caucasian peoples to assuage their feelings of guilt due to
the innate privileges believed to be associated with being white. This is the idea of white
guilt.
[t]he topics of racism, slavery, and colonialism are the subjects in which most
white students are made to feel a sense of guilt and most black students a sense of
constantly used to reinforce white guilt and promote a sense of historical injustice
Thus, Roberts says that Caucasian students, and probably Caucasians, in general, are
made to feel guilty about the history perpetrated by whites against blacks and people of
African descent. Consequently, whites are victimized by people who use this historical
perspective. Even students who have had no ancestors who perpetuated any harm to
blacks (for example, students from very low socioeconomic status) are made to feel guild
about what whites, in general, have done. In this respect, Grooms (2009), notes that:
[i]n an 1856 letter to his wife Mary Custis Lee, Robert E. Lee called slavery “a
moral and political evil.” Yet he concluded that black slaves were immeasurably
The fact is large numbers of free Negroes owned black slaves; in fact, in numbers
minority of whites owned slaves. According to the U.S. census report for that last
year before the Civil War, there were nearly 27 million whites in the country.
Clearly, Grooms informs his readers about two important facts: 1) Some Americans of
European descent felt badly about the slave trade of African peoples to the new world,
and even publically said so, and 2) In the 1860s, there were some free blacks who owned
black slaves.
By looking at these two perspectives which point to history where Africans were
forcibly taken from their homes and transported to North and South America as slaves,
one is tempted to believe that white guilt has resulted from educated people feeling badly
about what happened in the past and from the legacies of slavery, racism, and prejudice
have left on black people, especially in the United States. However, upon further
reflection, it appears that white supremacy is implicit here, since Groom’s article appears
on the website of David Duke (who is, incidentally, a notorious white supremacist).
Therefore, one must look critically at this viewpoint. As well, in digging deeper to the
driving force of Roberts’ article, one is immediately struck that it was published in
Identity: Magazine of the British National Party, a magazine that was published by a
Accordingly, The British National Party argues that multiculturalism is contrary to the
existed in the more recent past, and continues to exist today. As the world becomes
smaller due to globalization, increasingly more people in our world are realizing that
inequity exists due to a multitude of factors. However, white guilt is just one type of
guilt and perhaps not even the most pronounced kind of guilt. Perhaps, as a corollary, the
ancestors of those black American slave owners should feel black guilt.
In seeking out some of the sociological background of the concepts of white guilt
and privilege, and being a novice to the discipline of Sociology, these ideas to fall into
the category of intergroup relationships which in turn, stem from Social Identity Theory.
defined as ‘that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his [or
her] knowledge of his [or her] membership in a social group (or groups) together
with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership’ (Tajfel,
1978a, p. 63). This desire will prompt individuals to make social comparisons
between the in-group and out-groups, with the ultimate aim to achieve both a
positive and distinct position for the in-group. Thus, the explanation provided by
Thus, issues of discord often arise when groups do not share similar viewpoints, and
conflict may arise when some groups collectively feel as though they are treated
WHITE PRIVILEGE AND WHITE GUILT 9
differently (better or worse) than other groups. This may be especially the case when one
group has power or control over other groups. Therefore, the more powerful or dominant
group may participate in overt expressions of their dominion such a touting racist
continue. In turn, the advantaged group may consequently feel badly for their
participation in subjugating the less powerful group or groups which may result in
collective feelings of shame or guilt. In this way, it can be seen that privilege and guilt
are connected. Thus, the concepts of white privilege and white guilt are related, and I
will now examine these two concepts as they relate to my own life experiences,
growing up in Yellowknife, Barbados, and Winnipeg, I cannot recollect any time when I
felt that I was not being treated similarly to my classmates and friends, white, black, and
Inuit, African, South East Asian, and Asian backgrounds. Granted, those considered
white were the largest ethnic group in my circles, although the First Nations children
were a close second. Although I was very much a part of an ethnic minority because
there were very few black people in Yellowknife, I can honestly say that I do not recall
situations where I was excluded because of my skin colour. If anything, it was Dene
children who were considered to be of the lowest status. Issues of stereotyping abounded
in the community; it was a common perception that the natives were alcoholics, as they
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were the group of people who sat outside the post office drinking Lysol, vanilla extract,
and mouthwash. In fact, I recall discussing this issue with my father and asking him why
the Natives were always drunk and ‘misbehaving’. His response was that if I were able
to go inside any of the town’s many bars, I would see just as many white people getting
drunk and ‘misbehaving’, too. Essentially, my father did not allow me to judge the Native
people differently from other people and they were not the only people to participate in
This conversation made me wonder about what else was going on behind the
scene or beyond my experiences, and has made me ask many questions. My sister,
Sheryl, who befriended many ‘tough’ looking black teenaged boys, reports she had been
in shopping malls where security guards followed her and her friends around. This was
never my experience, however. But, during my years of living in Japan and South Korea,
Canada but I honestly cannot recall people treating me any differently than they treated
other foreigners. If anything, when people found out that I was Canadian, and not
American, their attitudes toward me seemed to change and I was often welcomed more
than I expected. I also attribute some of this to my attempting to learn the languages,
cultures, and traditions of these people so that I would cause as little offense as possible.
So, in terms of white guilt, I have personally never experienced someone telling
me that they feel guilty because of slavery or how black people have been treated.
However, I remember hearing a friend express her feelings of guilt in learning about
residential schools and how terribly Aboriginal peoples have been treated by the
Canadian government, even though none of her ancestors were responsible for that
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terrible behaviour.. I also recall an instance when I was a teenager and our family went
to Grand Forks and Fargo. In the parking lot near a liquor store, an unknown gentleman
approached my father and began to tell him how sorry he was for all of the terrible things
that whites had done to blacks. In fact, this man actually hugged my father at the end of
this brief conversation. Clearly, these are two examples of what I think is white guilt,
As a student, I spent my first eight years in public schools in Yellowknife and the
last five years in a private school in Winnipeg. As an adolescent, I had classmates and
friends from many different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds and I think I was valued
by my peer group and other acquaintances. In various courses, I remember studying war,
terrorism, racism, slavery, and civil rights, and I often wondered how people could treat
others so poorly and why equality was not a given in our world. I was always touched
when I heard about human suffering and I viewed people such as Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa as extraordinary humans who were role
models for all people no matter their ethnic or cultural background. In fact, I continue to
hold these values, and I try to bring them to bear on my world as a teacher.
For the last five years, I have been a public elementary school teacher in
Winnipeg. Interestingly, the school division where I worked was quite unique because
the students were mostly white and middle-class, and there were few teachers that were
not white and middle-class themselves. Of course, there were a few students whose
families were recent immigrants to Canada, but these children made up a very small
WHITE PRIVILEGE AND WHITE GUILT 12
on more than a few occasions that this was good for these students because I could then
be a good role model for them. Obviously, my objective was to be a good role model for
all of the children, irrespective of their colour or gender! Issues of race and ethnicity
came up quite frequently during these five years – mainly from my students who heard
stories and saw pictures of my family and learned about my experiences teaching in Asia.
In fact, I encouraged my students to ask questions and I always tried to answer then as
honestly as possible. Once, an eight-year-old boy corrected me for saying that I was
black: by informing me that I was ‘African-American.’ I explained that that the term did
not really apply to me since I am Canadian, and do not come from Africa. He then said
that he had discussed this with his parents, and I could tell that they were trying to teach
him more respectful language to use when talking about people of African descent, since
they may have thought that the term ‘black’ was no longer politically correct. It was an
interesting conversation as we danced around these various politically loaded words and
phrases.
refugees from the Sudan came to our school. This was very exciting for us, and I
remember several students commenting that these new students were “much blacker than
me” and accordingly, we discussed the appropriate ways of talking about people’s skin
colour. Even by Grade Three, I heard students say repeatedly that they should be nice to
people whose skin colour was different. At the same time, I heard many questionable
comments from teachers in the staff room about our new students including the fact that
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their families did not understand what was ‘appropriate’ food for lunchtime and these
faculty members thought the Sudanese food ‘smelled funny’ and ‘looked strange.’ In
retrospect, these were the same adults who stuck their noses into my pepperpot soup (a
Caribbean stew made of spinach leaves, okra, and pieces of salted pork or beef) and
wondered ‘what in the world was this green soup?’ I also had to explain that giving the
families free passes to the local swimming pool might not be such a good idea since the
girls had beautiful braids (hair extensions) which were likely to be ruined by the
chlorinated water in the swimming pools. I then gave an impromptu mini lesson on black
hair and the numerous chemicals, hair products and hours that girls would spend on
‘having their hair done.’ At this point, a coworker exclaimed “Oh, that must be what all
of those strange hair creams and sprays are in the shampoo section of Superstore.”
Clearly, these examples highlight the norms of reference both for the children and adults
had about people who were different from them. In both instances, the individuals
regarded their own shampoos, foods, and skin colours as being normal. For me, this
again suggests white privilege, the failure to recognize that what another does is normal
to them and not necessarily bizarre or aberrant. But, the black students may be
responding in a similar way. I wonder if any of the girls went home and told funny
As a teacher who has worked in Japan, South Korea, and Winnipeg, my career
has always been in settings where I am a racial minority. However, I do not think that
this has been to my disadvantage. In many ways, perhaps it has been advantageous.
Should I feel guilty if it has been an advantage? Over the past twenty years, Canadian
policy has been directed at improving the situation of minority people by affirmative
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action programs to ensure that they are employed and promoted fairly, with the hopes of
correcting historic wrongs where such people were undervalued and underemployed. In
other words, our country is trying to quell the feelings of white guilt where job preference
such, being a woman of ‘visible minority’ status has perhaps worked to my advantage,
since it may have helped my employers to find someone who is qualified for the job, does
good work, and improves their image as an ‘equal opportunity employer.’ However, I
am confident in my abilities, recognizing that I am a good teacher, and that I work hard
for the benefit of my students. Do I believe that affirmative action programs are
beneficial and will help to rectify past injustices? I have mixed feeling about this. On
one hand, I think that historically underprivileged groups such as females, aboriginals,
people with disabilities, and visible minorities should be given opportunities, but only if
they are qualified and only if they are competent. However, I think that lower SES
people should also be included in these programs because they, too, are not on equal
footing with those in ‘the majority’ (white, middle-class or upper-class males). On the
other hand, I do not think that someone deserves something (a job, a scholarship, etc),
just because their group, but not necessarily them, has been denied access to these
rewards in the past. Clearly, people should be judged on their merit, behaviour, and
abilities, and not because of their group membership. For me, this is epitomized by the
words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who dreams of a world where people “will not be
judged by the colo[u]r of their skin but by the content of their character.” This is a
principle of equality that I adhere to. However, since our world is not always fair,
WHITE PRIVILEGE AND WHITE GUILT 15
equality and opportunities for all do not always exist, although Canada is perhaps one of
It seems very tempting to say that white privilege is a bad thing and should be
eliminated, which in turn would render white guilt unnecessary. However, life is not that
simple. The issues of white privilege and white guilt are very popular yes, and certainly
politically correct now. In my opinion, if attitudes are to change, exposure to new ideas
and information are the vehicle for this change. And, who in Canada is more open to
new ideas and information than schoolchildren? Thus, we, as teachers, have the
responsibility to promote this new way of thinking for them. We need to break with these
established ideas.
bring white or higher SES (white, black, or other) privilege to light in order to eliminate
guilt. No, I think that teachers must first examine themselves and their own worldviews.
And, then I suggest that we incorporate issues of multiple viewpoints into our lessons and
classroom activities. This is not to say that we necessarily take a liberal, politically
correct, stance on these things, which is likely to ‘whitewash’ the truth and hide behind
convoluted jargon and the fear of offending others. Instead, we have to learn, listen, and
ask questions, instead of just accepting the status quo. And, we must be prepared to
move outside of our own comfort zones and explore our beliefs, acknowledge our own
prejudices, and recognize our narrow views of people from different races. This is easy
to say, but obviously difficult to do. In doing this difficult self-inquiry, we will be able to
Not only should teachers look at themselves, they need to explain challenging
subjects and topics to their students in ways that they can understand. This may be easier
in the senior grades where students’ thinking is more highly developed. But, with
younger children, teaching them at their levels must also be done with more awareness
and understanding. For example, when teaching students, even those in the early years,
one is able to point out inequality and truth. For example, in the Grade Five Social
Studies Curriculum, when teaching about First Peoples and the impact of European
contact, a teacher could talk about how Aboriginal peoples had their own systems of
government, education, and religious beliefs and practices. In essence, the Europeans
were not doing them a favour by imposing all of their culture on the people of the ‘new
world’. However, I encourage teachers to also note that the Aboriginal cultures were not
beacons of perfection either, for there were issues of territoriality, dominance of one
group over another, as there was evidence of war and of inhumane treatment, prior to the
Moreover, whenever issues to war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, slavery, and other
atrocities come up in the curriculum or the news, especially for students in middle and
high school, I think that teachers must take a balanced approach in discussing them with
their students. In this way, teachers should take care to demonstrate that heinous crimes
have been perpetrated by groups against others throughout history. I would continue to
teach that people treat each other badly, but that if the world is to improve, we need to
strive for equality, fairness, and sharing with others. Perhaps, this is evidence of my
naïveté and my work with younger children, but I think that if students are taught that
perhaps they will see the necessity for this to change as we strive to make the world a
I also believe that we need to look for increasing similarities between groups of
people and we need to stop focusing on their differences. This is not to say that
difference, ethnic background, skin colour, race, language, SES, etc, should not be
recognized. In truth, these attributes are part of the identity of people. But, I think that
we must continually accept that people are both individuals and members of ethnic and
acknowledge that prejudice, racism, and stereotyping exist within us all. Consequently,
white privilege, exists in Canada and needs to be acknowledged, but so does black
privilege. With that said, teachers and, in fact, citizens need to move forward and try to
provide opportunities for all students to have access to high quality education.
Additionally, teachers need to champion the cause of those who have actually themselves
suffered, because of poor parenting, poverty, and/or other life circumstances. And, those
who feel guilty about their positions of privilege, white, black, or other, should do
something positive for those with less than they have and they should challenge the old
Conclusion
guilt are phenomena that abound in our increasingly politically correct Canadian society.
In writing this essay, I reflected on my own experiences both as a person who is deemed
to be a minority and as a person deeply involved in the educational world. Although I can
WHITE PRIVILEGE AND WHITE GUILT 18
say unabashedly that both white privilege and white guilt probably exist, it is still
challenging to provide ways of moving beyond these rough and awkward concepts to
understand subtle and complex social relations. As human beings, we are territorial and
believe that often we fear change and we fear the loss of power and the accompanying
status that it brings. Also, I think that most people, no matter their colour, gender, or
SES, feel badly for those who experience racism, discrimination, and poverty. However,
I think that we may want circumstances to change only if this does not compromise our
own well-being, wealth, and position. Finally, these issues may seem too complex to
resolve, but if we, as teachers, are determined to make the lives of our students better, we
must acknowledge our relative positions of power and wealth. We must be mindful and
we must strive to make the small changes that start the wheels moving in an effort to
eradicate privilege and guilt for both whites and other people.
WHITE PRIVILEGE AND WHITE GUILT 19
References
History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct
Democracy in America, 1860-1880. New York, NY: Russell & Russell, pp. 700-
701.
Garvey, J. & Ignatiev, N., editors. (1996). Race Traitors New York: Routledge.
institution-of-slavery-in-the-old-south_7873.html
King, M.L., Jr. (August 28, 1963). “I have a Dream” Speech. Retrieved from
http://www.mlkonline.net/video-i-have-a-dream-speech.html
pp177-182. In Paula S. Rothenberg, Ed. (2007) Race, Class and Gender in the
Roberts, M. (2008). Slavery and the Sense of White Guilt in Identity: Magazine of the
Steele, S. (2006). White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the
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