A few thoughts on privilege

I'm not doing that privilege meme, because I don't think it's going to show me anything I don't already know--and the purpose of it was to be useful for the people answering the questions. What I want to say is:

Privilege is always relative. By definition. The things everyone gets aren't privilege: they're either basic rights, or they're invisible. (No such meme is going to ask you whether you learned to read, because illiterates aren't filling out LJ memes.)

The places where I find the concept useful and relevant are either those where there is a huge disparity in what people get, or those where what the privileged people have can exist only at the expense of the people without privilege. Clean drinking water may, in some sense, count as a privilege--but my having it does not require other people to drink from polluted ditches. Going to a particular exclusive school may reflect or produce privilege. Knowing you can go to such a school because of who your relatives are is privilege. Being listened to in meetings is not inherently privileged. Getting away with interrupting other people in those meetings, and not being interrupted with equal impunity yourself, is privilege, because it requires there to be people who have to put up with being interrupted, and not reclaim the floor. Being able to marry the person of your choice doesn't have to be a privilege--limiting it to heterosexual couples makes it one, but there isn't a limit on the number of marriage licenses that can be issued. Many people who consider themselves to be decent and fair-minded are willing to share the things that there's an unlimited supply of, but may still defend their privilege when they see themselves losing out if they have to share. I hope I'm not doing that often, but I have no reason to think I'm immune to that temptation.

A few thoughts on privilege

I'm not doing that privilege meme, because I don't think it's going to show me anything I don't already know--and the purpose of it was to be useful for the people answering the questions. What I want to say is:

Privilege is always relative. By definition. The things everyone gets aren't privilege: they're either basic rights, or they're invisible. (No such meme is going to ask you whether you learned to read, because illiterates aren't filling out LJ memes.)

The places where I find the concept useful and relevant are either those where there is a huge disparity in what people get, or those where what the privileged people have can exist only at the expense of the people without privilege. Clean drinking water may, in some sense, count as a privilege--but my having it does not require other people to drink from polluted ditches. Going to a particular exclusive school may reflect or produce privilege. Knowing you can go to such a school because of who your relatives are is privilege. Being listened to in meetings is not inherently privileged. Getting away with interrupting other people in those meetings, and not being interrupted with equal impunity yourself, is privilege, because it requires there to be people who have to put up with being interrupted, and not reclaim the floor. Being able to marry the person of your choice doesn't have to be a privilege--limiting it to heterosexual couples makes it one, but there isn't a limit on the number of marriage licenses that can be issued. Many people who consider themselves to be decent and fair-minded are willing to share the things that there's an unlimited supply of, but may still defend their privilege when they see themselves losing out if they have to share. I hope I'm not doing that often, but I have no reason to think I'm immune to that temptation.