The idea of white privilege isn't new. In the 1930s, W.E.B. Du Bois, an American sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist, described the "public and psychological wage" that allowed poor white people to feel superior to poor Black people. In the late 1980s, Wellesley scholar Peggy McIntosh listed 50 examples of white privilege in an essay, covering everything from how white people have access to better housing, health care, and education because of the color of their skin.
Since George Floyd's death at the hands of a white police officer in May 2020, and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic laid bare the health care disparities between white and Black Americans, white privilege has become an integral part of a wider conversation.