We have long since grown accustomed to thinking of Blacks as being "racially disadvantaged." Rarely, however, do we refer to Whites as "racially advantaged," even though that is an equally apt characterization of the existing inequality.
Harlon Dalton, 1995
As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something which puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see the corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.
Many, perhaps most, of our white students in the United States think that racism does affect them because they are not people of color: the do not see "whiteness" as racial identity.
In my class and place, I did not recognize myself as a racist because I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness by members of my group, never in invisible systems conferring unsought racial dominance on my group from birth.
Peggy McIntosh, 1988
Whiteness in a racist, corporate controlled society is like having the image of an American Express Card. . . . stamped on one's face: immediately you are "universally accepted."
Manning Marable, 1997
Good quotes worth noting. White privilege is a powerful, and almost invisible force. But let's not forget that class matters! Working class whites are not "universally excepted" in the corporate u.s., just as white women, queer and disabled folks struggle for equal privileges.