106 White Privilege Quotes
Following is our list of white privilege quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about white supremacy.
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Famous White Privilege Quotes
White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks. — Peggy McIntosh
Ignorance of how we are shaped racially is the first sign of privilege. In other words. It is a privilege to ignore the consequences of race in America. — Tim Wise
I want you to admit that there is such a thing as white privilege. — Jon Stewart
I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. — Peggy McIntosh
Male privilege and entitlement are dying a very painful death; no one gives up power without a struggle. — Gloria Allred
Most talk by whites about equal opportunity seems to me now to be about equal opportunity to try to get into a position of dominance while denying that systems of dominance exist. — Peggy McIntosh
Privilege blinds, because it's in its nature to blind. Don't let it blind you too often. Sometimes you will need to push it aside in order to see clearly. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
We've all been acculturated into accepting the inevitability of wrongful convictions, unfair sentences, racial bias, and racial disparities and discrimination against the poor. — Bryan Stevenson
Incidentally, if you are a non-racist white person who does not appreciate being accused of supporting white supremacy, you undoubtedly suffer from white fragility. — Gad Saad
If white privilege is a thing, why are people working so hard to be black? All of the award shows and cultural events favor black culture. — Milo Yiannopoulos
one question for me and others like me is 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. — Peggy McIntosh
The war on privilege will never end. Its next grat campaign will be against the special privileges of the underprivileged. — H. L. Mencken
... all Americans are the prisoners of racial prejudice. — Shirley Chisholm
I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group — Peggy McIntosh
It is important to understand that the system of advantage is perpetuated when we do not acknowledge its existence. — Beverly Daniel Tatum
Short White Privilege Quotes
- When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination. — Thomas Sowell
- The middle class male thinks he has a monopoly on objectivity. — Grayson Perry
- This is white man's integration, an integration based on exploitative values — Steven Biko
- If I were white I could capture the world. — Dorothy Dandridge
- The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. — Joseph Campell
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. — Michelle Alexander
White Supremacy Quotes
White people’s number one freedom, in the United States of America, is the freedom to be totally ignorant of those who are other than white. We don’t have to learn about those who are other than white. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that we’re ignorant. — Jane Elliott
Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man. — Abraham Lincoln
There is no clear distiction between white supremacy and the multicultual mindset. — Andrew Breitbart
The social disease of political correctness has entered daily life, inverting good to bad and attempting to rewrite proud histories as an imposition of white supremacy for which we all should make contrition. — Robert Agostinelli
How could they say that my religion, Islam was a 'race hate' religion after all the plunder and enslavement and domination of my people by white Christians in the name of white supremacy? — Muhammad Ali
Perhaps the biggest obstacle in destroying white supremacy is the hatred and hostility that Africans have for each other. — Runoko Rashidi
I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to the point of responsibility. I don`t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people. — John Wayne
I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office. — Abraham Lincoln
White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by women's suffrage. — Carrie Chapman Catt
In the colonial context the settler only ends his work of breaking in the native when the latter admits loudly and intelligibly the supremacy of the white man's values. — Frantz Fanon
Male Privilege Quotes
If you are a white male, you don't deserve to live. You are a cancer, you're a disease, white males have never contributed anything positive to the world! — Noel Ignatiev
The male has paid a heavy price for his masculine 'privilege' and power. He is out of touch with his emotions and his body. He is playing by the rules of the male game plan and with lemming-like purpose he is destroying himself-emotionally, psychologically and physically. — Herb Goldberg
The bar is the male kingdom. For centuries it was the bastion of male privilege, the gathering place for men away from their women, a place where men could go to freely indulge in The Bull Session. — Shulamith Firestone
For the women out there that I've hurt with my male privilege, I'm sorry. — Nate Parker
You can be addicted to White Supremacy and all of the benefits, you can be addicted to male privilege and all of the benefits that comes from it. It's like someone pointing at you and you have a stain on your shirt and you don't even know it. — Nate Parker
All I can do is seek the information that'll make me stronger, that'll help me overcome my toxic masculinity, my male privilege, because that's something you never think about. — Nate Parker
New media companies look remarkably like the old ones they aspire to replace: male, pale, and privileged. — Astra Taylor
The absence on the panel of anyone who could become pregnant accidentally or discover her salary was five thousand dollars a yearless than that of her male counterpart meant there was a hole in the consciousness of the committee that empathy, however welcome, could not entirely fill. — Anna Quindlen
As a white male in America, I have privilege. As a white male who happens to be an artist with a fan base, I have a platform to spread awareness about that privilege. However, songs about race and privilege are very difficult to A) write and B) dissect as a listener. They're heavy. — Macklemore
However, white male privilege means white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted for those shootings - even though most come at the hands of white dudes. — David Sirota
Understanding Privilege Quotes
The wisest among my race understand that agitations of social equality is the extremist folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. — Booker T. Washington
Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility. — Oprah Winfrey
It is a rare and high privilege to be in a position to help people understand the differences that they can make not only in their own lives but in the lives of others by simply giving of themselves. — Helen Boosalis
The privilege of privilege is that the terms of privilege are rendered invisible. It is a luxury not to have to think about race, or class, or gender. Only those marginalized by some category understand how powerful that category is when deployed against them. — Michael Kimmel
So once I shut down my privilege of disliking anyone I choose and holding myself aloof if I could manage it, greater understanding, growing compassion came to me. — Catherine Marshall
Share the Gospel. According to the Bible, it is every believer's privilege and responsibility to share the Gospel. If we understand what lies ahead for those who do not know Christ, there will be a sense of urgency in our witness. — David Jeremiah
I am committed to helping Alzheimer's Society in any way I can. My family and I rely on the help of organisations like Alzheimer's Society to help us understand the disease and guide us in the care of my grandmother. It's been a privilege to meet so many people with dementia. — Carey Mulligan
When we understand the privilege of what it means to be an athlete, we are in touch with, and rejoice in, our physical, mental, and emotional strengths and our endless possibilities. — Gloria Averbuch
American decision-makers must understand how damaging a foreign policy that privileges order and profit over justice really is in the long term. — Samantha Power
The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest. — Simon Sinek
Being Privileged Quotes
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. — Friedrich Nietzsche
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. — Marcus Aurelius
Instead of celebrating my birthday, it would be my proud privilege if 5 September is observed as Teachers' Day. — Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
I prefer the company of animals more than the company of humans. Certainly, a wild animal is cruel. But to be merciless is the privilege of civilized humans. — Sigmund Freud
Very often people who admit the facts, who are willing to see that Mr. Rockefeller has employed force and fraud to secure his ends, justify him by declaring, 'It's business.' That is, 'it's business' has come to be a legitimate excuse for hard dealing, sly tricks, special privileges. — Ida Tarbell
Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure. — Oliver Sacks
No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. — Friedrich Nietzsche
Each time, before you intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things! — Andrew Murray
Women will be no longer made the slaves of, or dependent upon men ... They will be equal in education, rights, privileges and personal liberty. — Robert Owen
There are two sets of principles. They are the principles of power and privilege and the principles of truth and justice. If you pursue truth and justice it will always mean a diminution of power and privilege. If you pursue power and privilege, it will always be at the expense of truth and justice — Chris Hedges
People Writing About White Privilege
More White Privilege Quotes
White privilege is the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it. — Peggy McIntosh
Some white people are privileged, some aren't. Some black people are, some aren't. It's strikes me as, by definition, a racist attack in that it's making a generalization - a negative one - based on skin color. — Tucker Carlson
My white skin disgusts me. My passport disgusts me. They are the marks of an insufferable privilege bought at the price of others' agony. If I could peel myself inside out I would be glad. If I could become part of the oppressed I would be free. — Robin Morgan
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 one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage. — Peggy McIntosh
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. — Peggy McIntosh
If whiteness were of no particular advantage, then having a fuller color wheel of skin tones would be purely a matter of celebration. But whiteness - just a drop of it - does still carry privilege. You learn that very young in America. — Eric Liu
I am not in favor of caste, nor separation of the brotherhood of mankind, and would as willingly live among white men as Black, if I had equal possession and enjoyment of privileges, but I shall never be reconciled living among them subservient to their will. — Martin Delany
Middle-class white children, children of privilege, are afforded the opportunity to make a lot of mistakes and still go on to college, still dream big dreams. But for kids who are born in the ghetto in the era of mass incarceration, the system is designed in such a way that it traps them, often for life. — Michelle Alexander
We live surrounded by white images, and white in this world is synonymous with the good, light, beauty, success, so that, despite ourselves sometimes, we run after that whiteness and deny our darkness, which has been made into the symbol of all that is evil and inferior. — Paule Marshall
Why must we always talk about race anyway? Can't we just be human beings? And Professor Hunk replied - that is exactly what white privilege is, that you can say that. Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The more divided people of color are in a system of white supremacy/privilege, the weaker they will be, both individually and collectively. — Tim Tebow
The new racism, like God, works in mysterious ways and is quite effective in maintaining white privilege. For example, instead of saying as they used to say during the Jim Crow era that they do not want us as neighbors, they say things nowadays such as 'I am concerned about crime, property values and schools.' — Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
In Harlem, black was white. You had rights that could not be denied you; you had privileges, protected by law. And you had money. Everybody in Harlem had money. It was a land of plenty. — Rudolph Fisher
The privileged position of whiteness doesn't allow for someone with one drop of Negro blood to be considered white, which allows whiteness to be a fairly pure category while blackness has to absorb an expansive reality of representation. — Kerry James Marshall
Whiteness is not a culture . . . Whiteness has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with social position . . . . Without the privileges attached to it, the white race would not exist, and the white skin would have no more social significance than big feet — Noel Ignatiev
Let me just say, at once: I am not now nor have I ever been a white man. And, leaving aside the joys of unearned privilege, this leaves me feeling pretty good. — June Jordan
Trying to convince someone that they are a racist or they have White Privilege - if it's in the air they breathe and the culture supports them, sometimes they never have to think about it at all. — Nate Parker
Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another, and so on. — Scott Woods
It was simple reality - most competitive tennis players in my day were privileged, spoiled, entitled and white. Also, many of them were beautiful, fit, tan and of good stock - great big hair and white teeth and long legs. Then there were the rest of us. — Anne Lamott
There is no birthright in the white skin that it shall say that wherever it goes, to any nation, amongst any people, there the people of the country shall give way before it, and those to whom the land belongs shall bow down and become its servants. — Annie Besant
I have never experienced racism in the feminist movement, so it concerned me to think that I was unable to see the subject clearly because I came from white, middle-class privilege. — Betty Buckley
I suppose I have had more advantages and privileges than most of you, who are slaves have ever known, and I believe more than many white people have enjoyed, for which I desire to bless God, and pray that he may bless those who have given them to me. — Jupiter Hammon
It was enormously challenging because you want that all-American girl, but you also want the cool WASP, privileged white girl. Usually, women in that package aren't funny. — Jenji Kohan
As an African-American, as a woman I think that I've been sensitized to the way in which history privileges the white male and the way in which certain aspects of history, the things that we are taught in school, the things that are handed down never, never entered the picture though they might have been very important. — Rita Dove
I'd say it's never a challenge to present white and heteronormative privilege. The hard thing is to write any other way. — Nell Zink
Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice. — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
First of all it's usually women who run these higher primate sanctuaries, rarely men. They are white. They come from privileged backgrounds. They are educated. — Russell Banks
I am South African and I am so aware, even as a white, privileged South African, that even within our community of privilege the idea of talking about sex or sexual preference or sexual identity or anything like that was just, nobody ever did that and nobody ever felt comfortable doing that. — Charlize Theron
I know many people on the left are suspicious of words like Americanization. To them, it can sound like a cover for white privilege and warmongering. It suggests arrogance and groupthink. But these connotations are not fixed. It is in our power to reshape them by recalling the best of America. — Eric Liu
There is a consciousness as an agent of one's own destiny as a person in America, there are things that can be done, there are advantages and benefits which exist that are directly related to - and even rest upon - white privilege. — Michael Eric Dyson
If your white privilege and class privilege protects you, then you have an obligation to use that privilege to take stands that work to end the injustice that grants that privilege in the first place. — Ayelet Waldman
Celebrating the holidays in the White House over these past eight years has been a true privilege. We've been able to welcome over half a million guests... our outstanding pastry chefs have baked 200,000 holiday cookies... and Barack [Obama] has treated the American people to countless dad jokes. — Michelle Obama
We should self-examine and talk about things like our own white privilege and these phony senses of being an artist. — Geoff Rickly
The mythology of science asserts that with many different scientists all asking their own questions and evaluating the answers independently, whatever personal bias creeps into their individual answers is cancelled out when the large picture is put together. This might conceivably be so if scientists were women and men from all sorts of different cultural and social backgrounds who came to science with very different ideologies and interests. But since, in fact, they have been predominantly university-trained white males from privileged social backgrounds, the bias has been narrow and the product often reveals more about the investigator than about the subject being researched. — Ruth Hubbard
For example, I was privileged to be working at the White House under the Clinton administration and had not finished my Ph.D., and I thought I was the cat's meow. — Peter Orszag
I go for all sharing the privileges of the government, who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females). — Abraham Lincoln
Film and TV is a very hard profession to enter into if you don't have the ability to take a long period of time without making money so you can write, direct or raise financing, or work your way up, often with unpaid internships. It's hard to get into without a lot of connections. You end up with a lot of white people from privilege making films. So we're seeing a lot of the same kinds of stories. — Sarah Polley
In Conclusion
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