Meeting a Personal Hero

Tuesday was Convocation on campus. For those unfamiliar with the Rites of Passage of a university, Convocation is the welcome to the university that is meant to mirror Commencement at graduation.

In my tenure at this university, I have seen many Convocations come and go. As a Freshman, I remember asking my RA what Convocation was, and she replied that she didn't know, so I didn't go. As a staff member, I have never felt like Convocation was a big deal, and I've even helped organize it a bit.

Well this year, things changed. A colleague of mine decided to be more intentional with selecting a Convocation speaker, so she thought back to her own college career, and wanted to bring someone to campus who had inspired her to think differently about her life. Turns out the woman she invited had a similar impact on my life. Who is it I am referring to? Peggy McIntosh.

Now, if you don't work in higher education, or if you have never done research on white privilege, you may not know who Peggy McIntosh is. If that is the case for you, I implore you to look her up on Google and read some of her papers. The woman is amazing!

I have known about Peggy McIntosh for over a decade. Once I heard she had been confirmed as our Convocation speaker, I started reflecting on my own experiences with her work. My Freshman year of college, I took an Ethics class in which I was required to read McIntosh's famous paper: "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." In this paper, McIntosh lists some privileges she has simply because of the color of her skin. Reading her list of privileges made me rethink my own privileges as a white woman. Some of these things I had never really thought about as privileges. I just knew them as truth, and had no idea others did not have that same opportunity.

One of the points McIntosh makes that stuck with me through college and after was her statement about being able to buy "flesh" colored bandages, and have it match her skin. I think the fact that I had never even thought about someone with a different color skin not knowing this privilege really honed in the injustices of racism for me. Some of the other privileges McIntosh itemizes cut much deeper, but for some reason I related to this one the most.

I studied McIntosh again at least twice in grad school, but still, I remembered my reactions to this paper my first time reading it my Freshman year of college. Needless to say, when the opportunity presented it self to have a private session with her before Convocation, I made sure to make time in my schedule to see her.

The meeting exceeded all my expectations. Peggy McIntosh speaks in a very calm and easy going tone. She does not claim to know all the answers, she just continues to state that she speaks from her own experiences. Somehow, she comes across as someone who is easy to relate to, and makes you think about your own experiences and unearned experiences. I think it helps that she has no expectations that everyone will see them as privileges, because she is simply telling her story, and how she couldn't sit idle and watch injustice happen.

I left that meeting (which, to quote my colleague, was the quickest hour ever) feeling revitalized in my need to point out my unearned privileges as a white person. Does this mean I'm a racist or bad person? Of course not. I just need to do everything I can to ensure that these unearned privileges do not continue in further generations. For helping me to see this at such an early age, I consider Peggy McIntosh a personal hero. I am honored to be able to say I have met her.