Herd Invisibility: The Psychology of Racial Privilege

Abstract

Despite overwhelming evidence of its existence, White privilege has received relatively little attention in psychological science. However, given the chronic and pervasive benefits tied to racial privilege, it stands to reason that living with such privilege affects Whites' everyday psychology. Here, we explore this psychology of privilege, connecting Whites' everyday experiences and behaviors to underlying motivations (i.e., innocence and maintenance) shaped by their privileged position in the social hierarchy. We shed light on Whites' use of strategies designed to protect their sense of innocence and, importantly, the consequences of these individual actions in aggregate. Specifically, we aim to resolve the tension between Whites' motivated blindness in response to evidence of privilege and their everyday experience of privilege as invisible. We argue that privilege is not inherently invisible; rather, Whites use cloaking strategies to address the discomfort associated with naked privilege. We further suggest that individuals acting to protect their own innocence leads to the emergence of invisibility at the societal level. A herd invisibility results, protecting both the innocence and privileges of individual Whites, but without their necessarily having to act on individual innocence or maintenance motivations.

Why work it when you can dodge it? Identity responses to ethnic stigma among professionals

“…Whiteness provides material resources and a system of inclusion even to those who do not seek to leverage racial bias (Nkomo and Al Arris, 2014), reflecting the automaticity, inescapability and effortless nature of White privilege. Because White privilege is systemic, unearned and taken-for-granted (Al Ariss et al, 2014;Dyer, 2012;Phillips and Lowery, 2018), we surmise that Whiteness does not require the active and deliberate identity construction entailed in leveraging other favourable identities (e.g. prisoners actively using 'good father' narratives in Toyoki and Brown, 2014).…”

“…Similar to other studies that examined the lived experience of White ethnic privilege (Samaluk, 2014), most interviewees did not make explicit reference to their White ethnicity, since being White often comes with "the luxury of obliviousness" (Johnson, 2006, p. 22). Informed by privilege literature (Dyer, 2012;Phillips and Lowery, 2018) we paid attention to their obliviousness of how Whiteness, in conjuncture with professional status, enabled them not to think about their stigmatized ethnicity or to blend into more generic identities imbued with normative Whiteness (e.g. European, cosmopolitan professional).…”

Reminders of ingroup privilege often threaten identity but rarely change beliefs

“…Members of high-status groups often respond to privilege interventions by claiming disadvantage in other domains (Phillips & Lowery, 2018). Individuals making this argument often claim that while most men or white people are afforded certain privileges, these privileges do not apply to them.…”

The reasonably prudent person, or me?

“…At times, however, adhering to personal rather than group norms might be unfair, prejudicial, or counterproductive. One example is failing to consider one's advantages and others’ disadvantages (Phillips & Lowery, 2018). Another is using one's own cultural practices as a normative standard for evaluating people from a foreign culture with very different habits and practices, such as believing that the food they eat is disgusting, or that their spiritual pursuits are sacrilegious.…”