What is privilege?
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March 11, 2023
Almost three years after the murder of George Floyd, it feels like
American society has gone backward when it comes to social justice.
Once touted by many politicians and major corporations, DEI
(diversity, equity, and inclusion) is now a "dirty" topic an
increasing number of businesses are staying out of. There was a
time when Corporate America had an influence even in deep red
states (think of, in 2015, how North Carolina quickly backtracked
on the infamous "bathroom bill" when several major companies
decided to pull their business out of the state). Now they are on
the defensive in the face of the "anti-woke" movement in the
Republican Party epitomized by Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
Social justice used to be a Christian theological concept,
particularly in the Catholic Church but also among the Protestants.
About a decade ago, social justice began getting a bad name thanks
to so-called "SJWs" (social justice warriors, or far-left internet
trolls). When Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president,
"Woke" became part of the anti-Trump "resistance" slogan. But some
time ago, "woke" became a slur used by the right wing.
One of the most contentious aspects of DEI and social justice
movements is the concept of privilege and the idea that systemic
oppression benefits some by the virtue of their birth or
upbringing.
The difficulty in understanding this stems from the fact that those
who are privileged usually do not have an awareness that they are
part of the privileged class. So when they are told that they're
"white privileged," "middle-class privileged" or "cishet
privileged," they become reflexively defensive. They feel like they
are being unfairly accused of something they "have nothing to do
with."
Fair enough. Everyone looks at the world through the frame of
reference based on their own lived experiences. If I were born a
white man and a son of a generational billionaire, I would probably
not understand that the world outside that wealth and privilege
actually exists. I might even assume that my life would be the norm
by which I judge what "normal" means in the whole world.
To demonstrate my point, though, let me introduce you to Rebecca.
She's a hypothetical, fictitious person, but there are a lot of
Rebeccas in America.
Rebecca is a white, middle-class, heterosexual, cisgender woman.
She is happily married to a man and is a mother to two grown-up
children. She does not have any particular religious affiliation,
although she was raised in a nominally Christian family. She thinks
she is a progressive and feminist, and votes for Democratic
candidates. In 2016, she even voted for Bernie Sanders in the
Democratic presidential primary! She had quite a successful
white-collar career and is only about 15 years to her retirement.
As a late Boomer/early GenXer, she was able to accumulate modest
wealth, most of which is in real estate.
In fact, she is proud of being a "housing provider." It is nice to
be able to build wealth on other people's money -- the money of
working-class people who spend a substantial portion of their low
wages on rent. Rebecca gets a tax write-off on the mortgage
payment, which is paid entirely from rental income. She builds
equity and wealth while her tenants throw much of their hard-earned
money month after month to only have nothing to show for it. Every
several years Rebecca sells her "properties" and gets handsome
profits. Some of the profits are reinvested into buying other
rental homes. Doing this allows her to have a semi-retired life
now.
Rebecca loves to travel. Wanderlust never leaves her heart. She
likes road trips and owns an RV. She also enjoys international
travel and cruises.
She always feels safe even when she travels alone through rural
America and Southern states. Being white, Rebecca does not get
pulled over by overzealous cops. She won't be harassed (let alone
assaulted or murdered) by racists, Islamophobes, antisemites,
homophobes, or transphobes. Even when her car broke down some time
ago in the middle of Alabama, local white men were being nice to
her. They helped her fix her car. Rebecca stayed at a local bed and
breakfast in that small rural Alabama town where she enjoyed the
famous Southern Hospitality. These people saw a lady like them,
never mind that they all voted for Donald Trump twice and some of
them were even members of a racist organization. Rebecca only had
to not talk about religion or politics and they'll treat her as if
she is one of them. She actually enjoyed the accommodation and
local dining.
Rebecca likes to travel abroad. It's nice to be a U.S. citizen;
most destinations don't even require a tourist visa to enter.
Third-world countries love white Americans -- after all, they look
just like those movie stars! -- and welcome them with open arms
because they know that Americans spend lots of money. She has even
gone to majority-Muslim countries such as Indonesia and the UAE and
enjoyed the resorts built just for foreign tourists and ex-pats.
They even seem to tolerate a solo female traveler without a hijab
since they know better than to alienate American tourists. Rebecca
does all this without even having to learn the local languages.
Nobody cares because everyone who works in tourism and hospitality
in those countries automatically assumes that all foreigners speak
English. And Rebecca can fly anywhere without difficulties. TSA
wouldn't be looking for people like her. She can leave the country,
and be waved right back in by the Customs. It's also helpful that
she has several credit cards with high credit limits.
It would never occur to Rebecca that being able to travel like this
is a huge privilege.
"Rebecca" is not an actual person but there are a lot of people
like her in the United States.
I'm not a Rebecca.
I do not feel safe being outside the narrow piece of land
stretching from Everett, Washington to Eugene, Oregon, on the west
side of the Cascades. Even then, there are some places in that zone
I would rather not be in. I was harassed and accosted by a
Klansman-wannabe (with a red pickup truck with a Confederate flag
on its back) near Saint Helens, Oregon a few times. I have some
idea where this guy lived: I've seen a house with a big Confederate
flag on it. I've even heard a local rumor that this man is part of
the County Sheriff's reserve volunteer. Police and military are
infiltrated by numerous men like him, and some of them join so that
they could get free combat and weapons training.
Being lost in Alabama could mean a literal death sentence.
International travel would be a near-impossible feat, and if I
could, there will only be a few countries that might welcome me.
Out of the question would be nearly all Asian, Middle East, and
African nations and East European/Eurasian nations, as well as many
Latin American and Caribbean states.
Privilege also manifests in a different way.
Often I see middle-class people walking past a panhandler downtown.
They also see tents in the underpass and parks and show a look of
disgust. They like to complain a lot about how these "bums" are
"bad for business" and "lower property values."
They argue that the presence of houseless people makes them feel
"unsafe."
There is a word for this: aporophobia.
Aporophobia is defined as "pervasive exclusion, stigmatization, and
humiliation of the poor, which cuts across xenophobia, racism,
antisemitism, and other prejudices."
More simply put, it is an irrational fear of poor people.
They might say, "why won't just go to a shelter," or "get a job."
In the privileged mind, they assume that going to a shelter means
access to public housing is handed to you on a silver platter. They
also assume that only if you apply for a job you can get a job, and
move into the apartment on the first day of your new job. Anyone
who has been through this can tell it is simply not true.
In fact, those who live in a tent across the street may have
already applied for subsidized housing five years ago and is still
on the waiting list. Section 8 runs out so fast each year that it
is on a lottery system. And they may not be employable but for some
reason, they are considered too young, too "healthy," or too "sane"
to qualify for SSI or SSDI -- and that's if they are U.S. citizens,
to begin with. A lot of people fall through the crack because the
system is created by privileged politicians and career bureaucrats
who never have a first-hand understanding or experience of this.
There are so many other ways privilege unconsciously and
consciously manifests in everyday life.
In short, privilege blinds people to the world outside their own
bubbles.
=>
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-navigate-your-own-privilege-5076057#toc-gaining-awareness-of-your-privileges
How to navigate your own privilege
=>
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691205526/aporophobia
Aporophobia
---
## Epilogue
In fact, I grew up in a relatively privileged childhood myself,
until I was disowned by my father at age 23.
When I was 22 years old, I began attending a queer youth support
group at a local mental health service agency. In that group were
quite a few young adults who lived in extreme poverty -- a world
that I was not aware that it existed. Some were "throw-away" kids,
kicked out of their homes to the streets by their parents who could
not tolerate the idea of having a queer child.
I would hear things like how Stacey (name changed here for privacy)
walked 15 miles each way to get to this group because she could not
afford the bus fares, or that many of them came to this group so
they could eat pizza.
I falsely assumed that transit agencies had low-income discount
fares (at the time they did not), that every low-income person got
hundreds of dollars each month in food stamps, and that there were
youth service agencies that immediately placed houseless youth into
housing and prosecuted their parents for child neglect and
endangerment. At the time I could not imagine what it was like to
survive on $5 a week, or that being houseless and/or poor was quite
expensive.
I only began to understand privilege after I lost it all.
