here. The whole "privilege" concept (or at least the word in this context) is relatively new to me; it's only in the last few years I've been reading discussions about male privilege and white privilege and so on. It's a really interesting area of debate, especially the little things that as a member of the privileged group, you just don't notice. Everyone's aware of the major issues that non-white people* face, for example, but you don't think of the fact that as a non-white person in Britain, nothing "flesh-coloured" (crayons, plasters, make-up, tights) is actually the colour of your flesh.
But the more I read, the more privileges I find there are, to the extent that I feel that all I can do is be aware of them. And in any given discussion, you find people who think that if you have X privilege, you can have no valid opinion on anything to do with that situation, and you should just shut up and listen to the people in the minority group, and do what they tell you. Which, while it may be reasonable, is vastly irritating when it means you're being told you know nothing about anything, ever, and you shouldn't presume to have opinions on it.
Anyway, I'm currently aware I have:
I'd also say I have some sort of Western/ First World privilege, English-speaking privilege (if there is such a thing, but it feels like there should be), and, oddly, when I read checklists about male privilege, I often feel like that applies to me too. Anything else I should be aware of?
* Tell me if "non-white people" is offensive, but I'm using it because I have an irrational dislike of the phrase "people of colour", which seems to be the in term these days.
There's an interesting post about cissexual/cisgender privilege
But the more I read, the more privileges I find there are, to the extent that I feel that all I can do is be aware of them. And in any given discussion, you find people who think that if you have X privilege, you can have no valid opinion on anything to do with that situation, and you should just shut up and listen to the people in the minority group, and do what they tell you. Which, while it may be reasonable, is vastly irritating when it means you're being told you know nothing about anything, ever, and you shouldn't presume to have opinions on it.
Anyway, I'm currently aware I have:
- white privilege
- heterosexual privilege
- cissexual privilege (not cisgender, so much)
- class privilege
- able-bodied privilege
I'd also say I have some sort of Western/ First World privilege, English-speaking privilege (if there is such a thing, but it feels like there should be), and, oddly, when I read checklists about male privilege, I often feel like that applies to me too. Anything else I should be aware of?
* Tell me if "non-white people" is offensive, but I'm using it because I have an irrational dislike of the phrase "people of colour", which seems to be the in term these days.
Comments
That really irritates me!
On the whole I've only ever been told, though not in so many words, that being privileged I couldn't possibly ever have a true and complete understanding of what means to be x, y, z. This is irritating (because I'm not completely lacking in empathy however emotionally stunted I may be *g*), but I 'get' it and accept it for truth -- part of the reason most people can empathize is because a some point they've been on the receiving end of someone else's privilege.
Lately I try to take it as a challenging to own my prejudices, but that's not to say that I'm not still obnoxiously resistant most of the time.
~Goes off to re-watch John Cleese, Two Ronnies sketch about class~
Wasn't there some discussion in your LJ before about the fallacy of 'if you don't agree with me you're not smart enough to understand why I'm right.'?
Might well have been - it's an argument I see a lot, and I try not to use, though sometimes it's damn tempting!
Despite the fact I am sure that statement could be proved wrong quite easily depending on individual pigementations and such.
The whole notion of priveledge (of any kind) invariably makes me go "...and the purpose it serves is?..."
Theres a point that the sort of logic and infinite regress that brings concepts of priveledge to the fore won't go beyond and that point is that everyone, in relation to at least someone else, is priveledged.
Power DOES NOT operate like a chain. It operates more like a network.
Only this time instead of cracking whips or refusing bus seats what we're doing is going "oh isn't it a wee shame".
Patronising to say the least. Progressive? Not as much as theorists and follwers might have us believe.
The "default" thing, yes, but I can't think of a term that doesn't do that, I don't think. "People of colour" tries, but it doesn't really work unless you use, I dunno, "people not of colour" every time you want to talk about white people.
Edited at 2008-08-20 08:46 pm (UTC)
The un-privileged privilege?
Tell me if "non-white people" is offensive
Being 'white' I wouldn't like to judge, but I dislike it as much as I do the term People of Colour*. Which is to say: not very much, but enough to wish I could think of something else!
Non-white seems to imply that the default is white and that all people who are not white are 'the other', 'the them' and not 'the us' (at least when a white person uses it, anyway), and seems in that way to be a yet another example of white-privilege.
*Which is often shortened to PoC and my tiny brain always translates it first as Pirates of the Caribbean :~D
Edited at 2008-08-20 03:07 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2008-08-20 03:28 pm (UTC)
It is irritating, but I tend to sit there and bite my fist and think, yes, it's irritating, but not as irritating as being told that you're subhuman because you're not white/cisgendered/straight etc., so by and large this is payback.
One of the artifacts of (Western? white? some) privilege is the assumption that with enough study and time anyone can become an expert on a topic, especially me! so it's hard to hear "no, seriously, you're never going to be able to learn this." But they're not saying "shut up and don't think about it"; they're just saying you're never going to be an expert the same way someone living with it could be. Which is annoying, but ... probably true, eh?
:~D
OH BUT THAT IS LIKE WHAT WHITE PEOPLE AND STRAIGHT PEOPLE DO TO MINORITIES.
Excellent, now can we have a discussion instead of just constant framing of that discussion to win points? Thanks.
Last year I had great problems through not being open enough to ideas that I found unacceptable in my then-relationship (or should that be not daft enough to allow certain things to go on?). I was criticised for that, called "bourgois" etc, but there are limits. As the saying goes, I may be open-minded but not so open-minded that my brains fall out.
GRR! That makes me angry!