Weight of Whiteness: A Feminist Engagement with Privilege, Race, and Ignorance

“Check your privilege” is a call to action for white people to consider the painful dimensions of what they have been socialized to ignore, and to explore the underexposed side of white dominance. The book emphasizes the importance of understanding privileges intersectionally, the ignorance-preserving habits of “white talk,” and how privilege and ignorance circulate in educational settings. The final chapters are powerfully autobiographical, illustrating how the gravitational pull of white ignorance and comfort are stronger than the clean pain required for collective liberation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 202 pages
Publication date: 23 February 2021
Publisher: Lexington Books

“Check your privilege” is a powerful and thought-provoking phrase that challenges white people to acknowledge and confront the painful dimensions of privilege they have been socialized to ignore. In her book, “The Weight of Whiteness: A Feminist Engagement with Privilege, Race, and Ignorance,” Alison Bailey delves deep into the impact of whiteness on our humanity, measuring its weight in terms of its costs and losses to collective humanity. People of color daily experience the oppressive effects of whiteness, yet the resistant habits and attendant privileges of whiteness make it difficult for white people to fully grasp the damage they have caused.

Bailey's book explores the overexposed and underexposed sides of white privilege, shedding light on the ways in which it operates to make invisible and intangible structures of power more visible and tangible. She emphasizes the importance of understanding privileges intersectionally, the ignorance-preserving habits of “white talk,” and how privilege and ignorance circulate in educational settings. The second part of the book invites white readers to explore the weightless side of white dominance, the side that they would rather not feel.

The final chapters of the book are powerfully autobiographical, as Bailey shares her personal journey of holding space with the painful weight of whiteness in her own life. She also offers a moving account of medicinal genealogies, which helps to engage the weight she inherits from her settler colonial ancestors. Through her writing, Bailey illustrates how the gravitational pull of white ignorance and comfort are stronger than the clean pain required for collective liberation. The stakes are high: Failure to hold the weight of whiteness ensures the continuation of systemic oppression and inequality.

“Check your privilege” is not a simple request for a favor but a call to action for white people to recognize and dismantle the systems of privilege that have shaped their lives. It requires a willingness to confront one's own biases, prejudices, and assumptions and to work towards creating a more just and equitable society for all. By acknowledging and addressing the weight of whiteness, white people can play a vital role in promoting social change and working towards a more inclusive and diverse world.

Weight: 518g
Dimension: 159 x 237 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781793604491