This essay is written as a companion piece to Marilyn Frye's essay "Oppression." When made aware of privilege many whites feel guilt, others react with resistance by positioning themselves as "race traitors" and yet others find ways to be disloyal to whiteness. If our goal is to redesign unjust social/political systems, we first need to force their unseen dimensions to the surface. Making privilege visible makes whites newly accountable for the benefits they receive from this system. A taxonomy of privilege and advantage is a helpful starting point for explaining what it means to have white privilege.

I provide a taxonomy of privilege that distinguishes between what Peggy McIntosh calls earned strength and unearned power conferred systematically. (1988) The general distinction I will make-- between privileges and mere advantages-- rests on three interrelated claims: (1) that benefits granted by privilege are unearned benefits conferred systematically to members of dominant social groups, and the benefits associated with mere advantages need not be conferred systematically; (2) privileges are almost always gained at the expense of others; and, (3) privileges have a kind of "wild card" value that extends benefits to cover a wide variety of circumstances and conditions.