Marblehead Library to Host Conversation on White Privilege

MARBLEHEAD, MA - Next month, the Abbot Public Library in Marblehead is set to host a conversation about White Privilege, what it means and what can be done about it.

The talk, organized by Marblehead Racial Justice Team, is part of the Conversations on Race program, which is held on the third Monday of the month in the Abbot Public Library and co-sponsored by the library and the Marblehead Racial Justice Team.

Marblehead Racial Justice Team member Mary Gardner said the event is scheduled for Dec. 18 at the library.

In a release for the event, organizers wrote the conversation will focus on the "effects of white privilege in our daily lives, whether it enables us (white) or is a barrier to us (people of color)."

Gardner said the group will also discuss strategies for dealing with white privilege on a daily basis.

She said the talk is based on “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Peggy McIntosh.

"Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened, or ended.
Thinking through unacknowledged male privilege as a phenomenon, I realized that, since hierarchies in our society are interlocking, there was most likely a phenomenon of white privilege that was similarly denied and protected. 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," McIntosh writes.

For more information, visit the Abbot Public Library's post about the event here.

Courtesy Photo / Abbot Public Library