6.1.2014

This blog entry is going to be about privilege.  Not the misrepresented version of the word privilege as it is used in social standing, but the real version of privilege.  This is not a statement that being white or male means that you can run by a cash machine and get your extra money.  It doesn’t mean that you get anything you want.  It means something much more nuanced.  In addition, we’re going to also say a few mean things about the establishmentarian views of certain political affiliations in this country, and maybe someone will learn something, or at least be willing to consider other thought.  Really, privilege denial takes place across political party lines.  It is not a Republican or Democrat issue.  However, the most outspoken about the denial of privilege are usually older white middle class males, the prime constituent in the Republican Party.

First, let’s just go ahead and get the definition of privilege out of the way.  It’s going to be a hot topic, so it just makes sense to start out with it.  It is a special right or advantage available only to a particular person or group of people, or at least predominately available to only a particular group of people.  Privilege means not having to worry about whether or not your specific characteristics define you as a person.  For instance, imagine that you are in a sub sandwich place and someone in the back of the line starts screaming at the top of his lungs, “Come ON!”  “Hurry the fuck up!”  “I got somewhere to be!”  If the man is a white man, he’s probably thought of as an asshole, and that’s that.  If the man is a black man, at least a sizable portion of the other people in that place are going to think something negative about African American, or about him being black.  If the man is not a man at all, and actually a woman, then even more vitriol is thought about in regards to her bitchiness, her hormones, or her menstrual cycle.  And if that man is an overtly effeminate man, then his sexual orientation would be in play.

Privilege is not an individual characteristic.  Having white privilege does not necessarily mean that I have specific advantage.  It does not mean that once I accept that I HAVE white privilege that the world is expecting an apology.  What it means is that whenever I do something, get a job interview, get pulled over by the cops, walk down the road at night, walk into a classy restaurant, or get a driver’s license, whatever it is, my characteristics like “whiteness,”  “maleness,” or “straightness” never come into play.  THAT is the privilege.  I know, with almost 100% certainty, that when I get pulled over, it’s because I broke the law.  I know that if I get a pay cut at work, I’m probably not performing well.  In fact, I know that any discussions regarding my competence at work at all are based exclusively in my level of competence, and not my race or gender.  I know that if someone tells me to shut the fuck up, it’s because I’m actually saying something that warrants that reaction.

It’s hard to explain privilege, really.  It’s a concept that has taken me most of my life to wrap my head around.  If someone doesn’t understand that it exists, then my few paltry examples are probably not going to actually change their minds.  I think that maybe a better way to explain it is to apply empathy.  But really, being in a position where you have the ability to deny that privilege exists, to be able to deny racial, gender, orientation inequality exists, is in itself in fact an explicit benefit of being from a privileged group.