White Privilege

Race, Migration & Demography

by Shannon Sullivan

Some embrace the idea of white privilege as an important concept that helps us to make sense of the connection between race and social and political disadvantages, while others are critical or even hostile. Regardless of personal views, it can be difficult to agree on what 'white privilege' even means.

Philosopher Shannon Sullivan cuts through the confusion and cross-talk to challenge what 'everybody knows' about white privilege. Using real-life examples, she offers a candid assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of the term, to present a better understanding of how race functions in our societies. She argues that white privilege is about more than race, that not only white people can have white privilege, and that feeling guilty about privilege can have a negative effect on the very people you feel guilty towards. In the end, she offers practical solutions for eliminating white privilege and building a fairer society.

Sullivan's forcefully argued book will inspire you to think again about white privilege and what it entails.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

140 pages, Hardcover

Published November 4, 2019

About the author

Shannon Sullivan is Chair and Professor of Philosophy at UNC Charlotte

She teaches and writes in the intersections of feminist philosophy, critical philosophy of race, American pragmatism, and continental philosophy. She is author of Living Across and Through Skins: Transactional Bodies, Pragmatism and Feminism (2001), Revealing Whiteness: The Unconscious Habits of Racial Privilege (2006), and Good White People: The Problem with Middle Class White Anti-Racism (2014). She is co-editor of several books including Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance (2007). Her book on The Physiology of Sexist and Racist Oppression is forthcoming with Oxford University Press in July 2015

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shannon Sullivan's "White Privilege" is a clear and concise response to 5 different assumptions about white privilege; such as "White people should feel guilty" and "White privilege is only about race." For the first couple chapters, Sullivan suggests racism is alive and well, and that white privilege works to benefit and harm both whites and people of colour in different ways. She argues that class is an important part of white privilege, and that many demonstrations of white guilt reinforce a hierarchy of goodness (middle-high class whites) vs. bad whites (low class whites.)

I think the book's strongest points occur in the final three chapters; focusing on white guilt/shame, political vs. moral helping and self-interest. Sullivan says that because guilt is tied to action, white guilt can let people off the hook for the absence of explicitly racist acts. She also suggests that white shame doesn't operate on action but is similarly ineffective because people react to shame with hostility and anger. She demonstrates how displays of white guilt and white shame can stand in as cultural and intellectual capital over meaningful action.

Sullivan also distinguishes between moral helping (which is short-lived and focuses on charity/superiority) vs. political helping (which focuses on a commitment to justice and equality). Political helping is concrete, she says. The final noteworthy point of the book, to me, is how self-interest can help create change because people are directly affected by their own white privilege. As she says, it helps people to have "skin in the game." Sullivan urges her readers to find how working to eliminate racism could matter to themselves personally.

At times I found myself wishing Sullivan would provide more examples of political helping in terms of white privilege. It would have been more rewarding if Sullivan expanded more on her points, especially what self-interest might look like in the fight against anti-Black racism (instead of placing this task solely on the reader). Overall, this is a great book with points that work to create change and explore what may be effective/ineffective strategies to counter racism, rather than to just simply point out its problems.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, easy-to-read critical introduction to white privilege: what it is, how it works, and how it might be exploited or overcome so that--sure, all people, but especially--white people might figure out a way to be more human.

[liz ⁀➷ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A MUST READ

[Aliya S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small book but taught me a lot about the nuances of white privilege

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insightful book, but the ending makes me put this at 3 instead of 4. I felt that Sullivan pulled the rug out from underneath me, by not providing examples of how white people can "get skin" in the game for racial equality. It felt like she said "I'm telling you you need this, and you may be confused about it, but I won't give you any guidance or examples."

It was a very frustrating conclusion. Perhaps I'm not getting a larger point, I'm not sure. Maybe I will come back and get it. For now, that's how I feel about the ending: frustrated.

[LitWithCharles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short but comprehensive book on a term which incites passions, both negative and positive, on all fronts. It takes a very methodical and dispassionate approach to this very complex issue.

First of all, this is a book that is clearly written for white people, as the tone is fully cognizant to the powerful emotions that this subject can be set off. The author knows that white people can be touchy at the idea of being accused of racism and so she proceeds in a very pedagogical way, step by step, from the very start.

She examines the intersections between race and class extremely well, and presents the many facets of white privilege held up through the prism of class. Again, she does this in a methodical way, as a Socratic dialogue with the reader. She demonstrates how this issue can be manipulated in a very performative way by white people to shame other less wealthy whites.

I know from my personal experience that discussions around race can often trigger a defensiveness in me. But the transparency of the author, and her approach, is disarming. I realize that some people may find that this need for a calm transparent tone in itself is a form of white privilege, but maybe it’s a necessary step and if anything, it worked well for me to help me examine this issue and to admit my own issues with racism.

What the book doesn’t cover is the distinction between white privilege and racism, it’s not clear if they are different or if the former is a subset of the latter? I recently read an article by an African-American journalist saying that she didn’t like the term white privilege because it detracted from the racism word.

Finally, the book is very US-centric which I think is a shame because it reinforces the belief that this is a US-only problem. Racism and white privilege exist in any society where there are power imbalances along ethnic lines, however uncomfortable that may feel to many. This book is a great starting point for those who may feel that discomfort...

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[Sandra L. Place · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. I teach equity, inclusion and diversity to a healthcare administration class at a state university and will use this little book's thoughts and examples (crediting the author of course). For much of the world, this one is an eye opener. It is evidence based and tells a story we don't want to hear, but need to hear.