On Privilege
Dec. 13th, 2010 09:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lightcastleI am steeped in a fair amount of privilege. Like many people in my situation, I try to keep aware of it, try to deal graciously with the times I fuck up (and we ALL fuck up), and generally go for the "don't be an asshole" rule of ethical engagement.
That said, I sometimes have trouble explaining the issue. I've seen some good primers, so let me throw a new one into the mix. From brown_betty, a primer on what it is and isn't.
As for dealing with it? I can't do much better than this quote from the above.
To help further with the concept, Plan Toys and Playmobil offer a quick lesson in the neutral and the marked.
As an example of someone taking an interesting approach to the question of Should White Men Feel Guilty, listen to Tim Wise.
For another talk on some of the toxic effects of our current construction of masculinity (which is tied into some of the negative effects of privilege and maintaining it), I give you
Tony Porter. (Warning, he describes an ugly sexual assault in this talk.)
I think much of the abusive behaviour perpetrated by our financial elites ties into privilege and the ways it makes you blind to what is going on with others. I think the sense of unexamined privilege slipping away is also behind a lot of the "white male anger" tapped by the Tea Party. If you never examine your privilege, you internalize it as "the way the world works" and when that changes, it appears as deeply unfair to you. If you have no language to describe that, name it, and confront what it really means, it is all too easy to descend into reactive, desperate, and cruel behaviour to try and preserve it.
In some ways, it falls into the realm of a piece of wisdom given to me be K. Wiley on a Black Friday drive in search of a computer deal. Speaking of how many people bend over backwards to help s00j with her touring, he smiled quietly. "Of course, I think she deserves to be treated like a queen by everyone, everywhere she goes; but I know better than to think she's entitled to it."
Mistaking "entitled" for "deserves" is privilege.
That said, I sometimes have trouble explaining the issue. I've seen some good primers, so let me throw a new one into the mix. From brown_betty, a primer on what it is and isn't.
As for dealing with it? I can't do much better than this quote from the above.
Be aware of the things you can do because you're privileged. Be aware of their impact. Be aware of the things other people can't do because they lack that privilege. Own your privilege.That simple. (Not easy, mind you, but simple.)
To help further with the concept, Plan Toys and Playmobil offer a quick lesson in the neutral and the marked.
As an example of someone taking an interesting approach to the question of Should White Men Feel Guilty, listen to Tim Wise.
For another talk on some of the toxic effects of our current construction of masculinity (which is tied into some of the negative effects of privilege and maintaining it), I give you
Tony Porter. (Warning, he describes an ugly sexual assault in this talk.)
I think much of the abusive behaviour perpetrated by our financial elites ties into privilege and the ways it makes you blind to what is going on with others. I think the sense of unexamined privilege slipping away is also behind a lot of the "white male anger" tapped by the Tea Party. If you never examine your privilege, you internalize it as "the way the world works" and when that changes, it appears as deeply unfair to you. If you have no language to describe that, name it, and confront what it really means, it is all too easy to descend into reactive, desperate, and cruel behaviour to try and preserve it.
In some ways, it falls into the realm of a piece of wisdom given to me be K. Wiley on a Black Friday drive in search of a computer deal. Speaking of how many people bend over backwards to help s00j with her touring, he smiled quietly. "Of course, I think she deserves to be treated like a queen by everyone, everywhere she goes; but I know better than to think she's entitled to it."
Mistaking "entitled" for "deserves" is privilege.
