Privilege Progress Report: A Year in Review

This may very well be the last Breaking Bias post of 2014. I think this is why I feel a special obligation to take a leaf out of Facebook's book and write a "Year in Review." At first I thought of doing a timeline, but I felt like that would treat certain issues disproportionately. Then, I thought of writing a list of highlights for each form of privilege, but I didn't want one triumph (or failure) for an issue to look more important than any others, so I decided against that as well. At this moment, organizing a review seems nearly impossible. There are so many things that I could write about, so many things that I could argue were pivotal moments to those trying to get a better grasp of privilege I have so many different thoughts swimming through my mind right now. . But above anything else, I'm thinking that 2014 was a pretty big year.

Granted, I am young and growing more and more perceptive by the day. It's likely that 2014 was the same as any other year only I've barely begun to notice the important stuff. Or perhaps, I've only recently developed the skill to identify what the "important stuff" exactly is. Either way, I believe the best way to truly give this year justice is to simply present it for what it is. 

If I were to classify 2014 as any kind of year I'd say it would be a loud one. 

It seems like for the past couple of years, privilege has been  passed down like salad at Thanksgiving dinner: the topic is rarely put on our plate, and when it is, it takes up the smallest portion of it possible and even then it's pretty thoroughly ignored. However, as the years progress, connections are increasing, ideas are spreading and people are...acting. People are actually acting.Not only are they acting but are following through. This isn't just pertaining to Ferguson. This is happening with gender equality, body image, LGBTQ rights. Activists are becoming more active and  most importantly, people are becoming more willing to teach. Taking action is one thing but encouraging further participation by educating others is an invaluable asset to equality that 2014 has been generously provided. 

 The tenacity of the #BlackLivesMatter movement in particular is inspiring others to persevere in their causes, but what's really caused talks on privilege to pick up speed are the discussions constantly circling throughout the web. In 2014, the minorities of America and the ones fighting for them learned how to speak up.It is all very exciting. There is still so much to be done but now people are more willing to try to get it done. Because of this, I can't help but feel a sense of optimism at this year's close.

Maybe that's just me. I'm barely 18 years old and up to this year I've never really thought of what privilege is or how every day aspects of my life demonstrate the advantages that I have over other people.  Within this year it seems as if the world has gotten bigger. I can only hope that one day this blog will have the same effect on others. I hope that these posts will help expand the worlds of others too. I've been learning so much, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to have you readers learning with me. Thank you.

Until next year!

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When Christmas isn't a Holiday

"It's not about what you get, it's what you give." That's what my parents always told me. Growing up, that lesson was water off a duck's back; however, this phrase took on a whole new meaning for me this season. In one of my first posts, I mentioned that while I live in a low-income household, I have more than a couple of affluent relatives on the other side of my family.  This has given me the opportunity  to sample both sides of the social class spectrum. There are times,many of them, where the difference in our living styles is more obvious than others, but over the years I have found that this difference is more obvious during the holidays.

"It's not about what you get, it's what you give."

The harsh reality for many families is that they don't have anything to give. Some don't have anything to keep. With the copious amount toy drives, food drives, and bell-ringing Santas in front of Walmart that surface this time of year it's easy to claim that during this season, the poor are far from dismissed. But I feel like one common misconception of charity during the holidays is that the wealthy contributions to the poor "make" their Christmases. They don't. A Christmas tree with or without presents under it hurts just the same if you aren't the one putting those presents there. This is the season of giving. People living in poverty know that just as much as anyone else and when they can't give, it stings. It always stings. I have seen my mother drive herself in deeper debt because the idea of not getting her children Christmas presents filled her with a kind of sadness no paycheck could rectify. The past 18 years have consisted of profuse apologies on Christmas day and wounded glances at the gifts my father sent. I imagine that there are other low-income families who have had similar experiences.

Christmas is a celebration of prosperity. Those in the upper and middle class can afford to buy gifts for most members of their immediate relatives, various extended family members, and a single parent household that goes to their same church. Meanwhile, those in the lower class are either exhausted or exploited or both. This season is a spit in the face to all those who break their backs to make ends meet but don't get paid enough to buy anything other than what is necessary.

I'm not trying to be the Grinch here. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. But I recognize that what makes Christmas a positive season for me is the fact that this is a time of year that has always been funded for me. That doesn't mean Christmas is all about money. Family, kinship and goodwill are all virtues that make Christmas what it is, but these are parts of a whole. For many families there are parts of this whole missing. That's why I believe that if there's anything that we should give during these season, at the very least it should be thanks. Because so many of us have so much more than others.

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Mental Illness in the Media

A recent study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) found that 18.2 percent of America's adult population endure some form of mental illness every year. That's just about one in five. Statistically speaking, you could have two or three co-workers suffering from a mental illness in your office. If all of my classmates were eighteen, up to five of my peers who I talk to on a daily basis could be mentally ill. These numbers, of course, are not evenly blanketed throughout the country, and probably not in my city either. While the 1-in-5 principle is likely, it is not certain.  I researched this statistic to introduce today;s topic, and what I found was entirely unexpected. I mean, yeah. I knew there was a fair number of Americans who suffered from depression, but 18.2 percent...well, that is a significant number. Am I the only one who is surprised? Maybe. This might be a old news or I may be a poorly informed individual. I wouldn't put it past myself, I am a high school student afterall, but for a moment let's assume that this is a marginally surprising figure to most American people (which could be true because most Americans are poorly informed individuals). Why is it surprising? I think it's because mental illness is something we expect to be easily noticed. To many, "mentally ill" is just a euphemism for "crazy," "psycho," or even "dangerous." Mental illness is stigmatized in a way that no other mental illness is. A significant factor of this is the way mental illness is portrayed to the American people. In the media, we see the mentally ill exploited and misrepresented for the sake of entertainment time and time again.

We've all seen the classic horror movie cliches. The ax murderer, the psychopath with the tragic backstory, the man with the "bad voices" in his head telling him to kill people. Whether it's through Alfred Hitchcock or Stephen King, mental illness has been a convenient backstory for bad guys throughout the ages. This applies to television as well. When it comes to prime-time shows, 73 percent of characters with mental illnesses are portrayed as violent, compared to the 40 percent of "normal" characters. Violent or criminal behavior is often times over sensationalized to better grasp an audience's attention. In the words of Robert Berger, Ph.D, former professional consultant for the 2009 TV drama Wonderland, "“People aren't interested in watching someone with a minor illness go to a self-help group.” As a thriller enthusiast who loves movies like Psycho and The Shining, I can whole heartedly agree to this, but that doesn't mean writers have an excuse to blow mental illness out of proportion, or only show viewers extreme cases. It is possible to be accurate and entertaining. A champion of balanced portrayals of mental illness in the media is the ongoing series Homeland which features a successful CIA agent with bipolar disorder whose characterization isn't centered around her disability. The problem is, being balanced requires more work. It's so much easier to slap the "crazy" label on a supporting character without feeling the need to do any research on the disorder that is being portrayed. Accuracy is also seen as a limiting factor in the creative process. Sometime fudging a couple of facts makes an episode that much more compelling. What writers and directors don't take into consideration is that people actually let these portrayals affect their perception of the mentally ill. Surveys show that 61 percent of Americans believe that people with schizophrenia are likely to commit violent actions against others. Mental illness has been proven to be connected with some cases of violence, but they do not go hand in hand. Mental illness is not a sure indicator of violent behavior later on in life. Psychiatry studies explicitly state that Other variables- for example substance abuse, history of violence, demographic variables (e.g., sex, age) and the presence of stressors all play a role in one's likelihood to commit violent acts. These contributing factors usually need to be paired together for something big to happen, but mental illness isn't always that factor. Any T.V. show or movie saying otherwise is just being unfair.

This isn't limited to the silver screen. Negative portrayals of the mentally ill also exist in reality. News reports emphasize the mental instabilities of criminals while tabloids feed off of the suffering of celebrities like Lindsay Lohan after serious breakdowns caused by mental illness. We like to find what's different in other people so that we can tell ourselves we can never become it. This kind of mentality is the very definition of prejudice, and it needs to stop.

As a society it's our job to look past the stereotypes we see in the media and make judgements on who individuals are for ourselves. This applies to the mentally ill just as much as anybody else. Being mentally ill doesn't make somebody a liability or dangerous or helpless in any way. There are ways to get better and most people do. They do not, however, turn into ax murderers. The mentally ill should not be shunned, but supported, not unstable but inspirational. Physical battles are one thing, but getting through seemingly insurmountable battles within the mind takes a special kind of courage that I admire more than anything else. I think that's where the headline belongs.

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Trivializing Privilege

Privilege is a tough subject to talk about, and not one that people understand fully. This Buzzfeed article shares the story of how one teacher tried to teach privilege to their students. It’s a very simplistic activity that involves throwing paper and fairness. But, as some people have pointed out, privilege isn't just throwing paper. Jeff Wang, the author of this article shared his opinion on the classroom activity. And it’s an important perspective to keep in mind.

When we talk about privilege we need to make sure that everyone can understand us. But we also need to ensure that we aren't trivializing the hardships that a lack of privilege causes. Equating privilege to throwing paper is helpful in understanding the concept, but not the consequences. We always have to keep in mind that a lack of privilege isn't a missed basket. It’s higher death rates, higher incarceration rates, higher odds of rape and assault, it’s the refusal of medical care, and then being blamed for it.

But we all have privilege. You have the technology (computer or phone) to read this blog post, and even the knowledge of the English language to read it. Class privilege and educational privilege at work. Keep note that privilege changes from culture to culture. Minorities are majorities elsewhere in the world. Knowing English is a privilege in the United States because it is so prevalent. Trying to exist in the US without knowing English is difficult, hence that knowledge being a privilege.

Are we just meant to feel bad for the privileges we have, and what do we do with it? Youtube content creator Mele, explains what to do with privilege very well in her latest video. She talks about using privilege to empower others. That privilege is not meant to shame people or guilt others. But when people are aware of their privilege they can truly work together with each other to achieve better environments for marginalized groups.

We all have our own identities and backgrounds, and from that we all have different privileges. And in order to truly work together we need to have empathy for those who don’t have what we do. And then once we are aware of our own personal privilege and bias, change can happen.

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Everything Wrong With the Boyega Controversy

Confession: I am a huge nerd. So, of course, when I heard there was going to be a new Star Wars movie, I just about ripped my hair out in excitement.Last week, the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released and with it came an explosion of questions, comments and concerns from the Star Wars fan base. Everything seemed to be going great and then...the bigots joined the party.Within minutes of the trailer's release outraged tweets from fans began to surface. Their biggest complaint : the casting of John Boyega, who is shown as a stormtrooper in the first 3 seconds of the clip. What was wrong with him? Well, he was black. Here are some quotes from a couple of gems I'd found:

" The new Star Wars trailer... I'm calm... "There has been an awakening, have you felt it..?" IT'S A BLACK GUY STORMTROOPER, OMFG Whaaaaaat?! "

"A black stormtrooper? THANKS, OBAMA"

AND

"How about the stormtrooper who just realized he became the third black guy in the galaxy?"

Most people were upset by the concept of a black stormtrooper because, in their opinion,  it interferes with the accuracy of the new movie. In the original trilogy, it has been stated that all stormtroopers are clones of Jango Fett, bounty hunter and father of Boba Fett. If that's the case, all the stormtroopers should be white, right? 

Well, no. Clone troopers were what made the original stormtrooper corps, By the time of the Second Imperial Civil War, well over a century since the fall of the original Empire, the vast majority of stormtroopers were composed primarily of enlisted soldiers. This opens the possibility of all kinds of diversity within the corps, not only in race, but species.

Secondly, the guy who plays Jango Fett, Temuera Morrison, isn't even white. As a recent article in The Atlantic points out, "he's a New Zealand born person of brown skin an Maori descent."

So, the argument that John Boyega doesn't belong on the cast of The Force Awakens is supported by no concrete evidence whatsoever.

It's just racist.

I feel that the Boyega controversy holds a couple of profound implications about society.

For example one of the main issues people said they had with the controversy was the media's reactions to the reactions of the star wars fan base. Many claimed that this scenario was just another example how people tend to jump the gun on calling things "racist."  I have heard more conservative friends of mine  make similar comments after similar stories hit the national radar. It's like we're searching for a problem, they say.

First of all, complaining about a cast member solely on the basis of their race is, by definition, racist. Nobody complained about the stormtrooper not looking like Jengo Fett, which just may have been a more reasonable complaint, they asked why he was black if the original face for the stormtroopers was white. Some even lamented that Boyega's casting was just another example of how Hollywood's newfound love for political correctness is ruining movies. This is not only incorrect (Hollywood is still extraordinarily white washed) but once again, racist. And yet, one week later, as I go through the comments on articles about the Boyega controversy,  I see people defending these comments as innocent concerns from a passionate fanbase. I see accusations of people failing to see the "bigger picture." Well, there definitely is a bigger picture to be seen here, but anybody who is making excuses for these comments is holding the picture upside down.

We like to say that by 2014 racism cannot possibly exist and therefore anybody accusing anybody of racist remarks is over-sensitive, too liberal or obsessed with political correctness. If the events and protests within the last couple of weeks have spelled anything out, it is that this is simply not true. When the public cries out over this breed of uproar, be it as shocking as Ferguson or a simple as a bigoted response to a movie trailer, and we as a society respond by saying that it's all just a big soap box over nothing we are sweeping the bigger issue under the rug.

This nonchalant response not only causes people to ignore these bigger issues, it causes them to normalize the behavior that  goes hand and hand with it. "Yes, some police officers are guilty of racial profiling. That doesn't mean we need to reform the system." "Yes, there are some racists online, but if we ignore them, their voice doesn't really matter." Simple statements like these may seem harmless, but in reality, they enable a kind of mentality that is toxic to our social ecosystem. Normalizing or dismissing bias allows for it to be embedded in our culture.

Since the trailer's release, John Boyega released a statement to the critics of his casting by telling them to "get used to it." A simple but powerful response; however, when it comes to racism in our own community we should defiantly not get used to it. We should speak out and make it clear that this kind of behavior is nowhere near acceptable.Awareness may not solve racism entirely, but it will prevent ourselves from making the problem any worse than it already is.

And really, that is the very least we can do.

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Bias Goes Beyond Race

Check this out.  Why?

It's another example of how society wants to define something that they don't get to define.  Yes, it may have been hard for her family to accept her the way she saw herself, but the reality is that "he" was a "she" and not amount of make-up or changes to hair can change that.

This article makes me think of babies who are born with two types of genitalia and the practice for several years was for doctor's to simply pick a gender and make the necessary assignments surgically.  The idea is that gender is only about body parts, that it has nothing to do with the soul or what "feels" right to us.  People who've been brave enough to challenge their own biology have made it clear that this thinking is flawed.

What's the take away? As a nation we shun things like arranged marriages because people should be able to choose to be with someone who they feel right about being with.  We don't have to defend why we don't want to marry one person, but do want to marry another.  However, what happens when someone feels something much, much stronger, like the sense that inside they're a female though their biology is make?  We try to discount those feelings because of our own discomfort.  

Bias is not just about race.  It's about so much more.

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University of Chicago's "Intolerance"

Last week, someone showed me this article. It talks about how some students spoke up about the University of Chicago’s “culture of racial intolerance”. Colleges aren't the safest community for people of color, but when people spoke out against this racial intolerance they were subjected to slurs, and violence, and threats of harm and rape. And frankly, that's appalling. The university said that the threats were “unacceptable” and notified law enforcement. But the students say it isn't enough.

Students, daily, are subject to these threats all around the country because they want to see the culture of their school be more accepting. And as spokespeople, they should be looked up to and respected. Not threatened to the point where they don’t leave their homes. To think that threats of rape was a person’s reaction to another students asking for diversity is, to me, frightening. All students have the right to feel safe.

I've rarely have dealt with racism first hand. I’m white passing and go to school in a safe community. But not all people do. Some people have to worry about their safety every day, just because of their skin color. That is something that I will never really understand, but I can understand the harm it places another person in. And a person’s identity is not something to be “tolerated”, but accepted. The culture of a school shouldn't be “tolerant” of people of color, but welcoming. Food for thought.

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Reaction to Rudy Giuliani's Comment on Violence in Black Communities

This morning, Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of sociology at Georgetown University and former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani got into an argument that was so heated I probably could have fried an egg on the laptop I was watching it from. Tonight's post was supposed to be on the disproportion of global access to a quality education; however, when I came across this video it felt like I was struck by lightening. I had to write my comment down: Rudy Giuliani's assertion that law enforcement needs to crack down on black offenders more than racial discrimination is not only ridiculous but down right offensive. I was disgusted by the ignorance of his comment.
The video was short, but the few words that were exchanged between the two men seemed to be enough to completely mirror a conflict in our communities' streets right before my very eyes. If the events of past two years have taught us anything it's that racial discrimination is a societal plague that has yet to be cured and that has proven to be fatal. We'd like to believe that by 2014, bigotry like this has been eradicated, and that's why we like to make excuses as Mr. Giuliani did when he said that the real problem lies within the races themselves. Unfortunately, this kind of mentality only furthers society away from progress. Pointing fingers in the wrong direction only enables the issue to continue as is.

Throughout the interview, Mr. Giuliani continued to stress the statistic that 93% of black victims of violence are attacked by offenders of the same race. Sure, with a figure like that, it's easy to say that white offenders aren't the issue here, but that's completely missing the point. Nobody is implying that white offenders are the issue. Nobody is suggesting that there's been a new-age serge of white supremacists killing off African American teens. To me these are the only claims where yes, the statistic that 93% of black victims of violence are attacked by offenders of the same race proves to be an effective use of devil's advocate.

However, this is not the case. The root of the problem is not white police officers, it's society's tendency to hold onto racial stereotypes.

I feel like too many people live in this bubble where the racism that exists is directly proportionate to the racism that they see. I know I'm one of those people. It's 2014, I know that there are good people and bad people, criminals and law abiding citizens and criminals, and that these qualities in a person should never be seen as directly associated with race. Because of this, I just assume that racial profiling is a tendency isolated in a few people. This past Monday, I came across a rude awakening when this link was shared in a thread over Gmail. It shows the proportion of arrest rates of black and non-black citizens in various American cities Orange dots represent zero disparity between black and non-black arrests, green represent small disparities, and blue represent large disparities.

Here's a map of the country:

Here's Ferguson:

Here's Mesa, Arizona:

 I was shocked when I saw these maps. I have spent my whole life thinking that my community was immune to racial profiling, but the opposite has proved to be true. It seems that the same concept applies to the rest of the country as well. My take on this is that in some cases a disparity makes sense. For example, if a city's population is predominately black, then of course the black arrest rate will be the highest. For a country where African Americans make up only 14% of the population, this map is overwhelmingly blue and green. As I watched the NBC Newsroom debate on violence in black communities, my thoughts went back to these pictures. Mr. Giuliani says that racial profiling isn't what's causing all of this turmoil, that rather the problem is isolated in black communities alone. But they numbers, they speak for themselves.

Mr. Giuliani's comments scare me because he is one voice that represents millions. There are people out there who see this map and will tell themselves that every single one of these arrests was sensible and justified, who will argue statistic after statistic on minority incarceration and recidivism before they consider that maybe the crimes weren't committed by the ones being arrested. I'd say that we all know at least five off the top of our heads. This mentality is toxic to our communities. Saying that the solution to black victimization is cracking down on interracial violence is like trying to get rid of a weed by pulling of a couple of its leaves. Sure, it's a part of the problem, but that weed is going to stay where it is and grow more and more until it is pulled out roots and all.

Mr. Giuliani's comment is a wake up call if anything. Yes, it is 2014 but people will still believe what they want to. The question is, what do we do about it? Do we try to convince them otherwise or do we just leave the bigots behind in the movement?

I believe that a bit of the problem lies in all of us, whether it's because of ignorance, or a lack of motivation to cure it. It's up to everyone to help be the change by finding the source of the problems and tackling it head on, even if putting the blame elsewhere is easier to do. The first step is accepting responsibility, then possibility and then moving forward from there.

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Skinny Genes

Growing up, my father was always worried about what people would think of our family. “Those jeans are ripped, go change.” “Read this book on how to diet properly.” I was always confused as a child, as to who would care if my pants were a bit high, or if my sister’s stomach was a bit big. But as it turns out, people stare. And they aren't sweet about it.

People always look away when they are caught staring. As if they weren't caught in the act. But my father was never afraid of the eyes on our family, but the thoughts and faces people made. And boy did people make faces. The Hispanic family shopping in a primarily white neighborhood; ‘disgusting’ their faces would say.

My mum found comments about her weight hilarious. The words “YOU'RE FAT” were viciously thrown through the air. “And…?” my mother would reply, “I already know.” People were shocked at the response. How can she be okay with that? How could anyone be okay with being overweight?

I am naturally a thin person. I wear small shirts, and skinny jean pants because they fit me like normal ones. But my siblings are not naturally thin. My twin really likes his belly, and my sister complains about her pant sizes constantly changing. Being thin is a privilege I have, and growing up with people who don’t have that privilege helps me realize this.

But not all thin people realize that being thin is a privilege. I am never stared at when I eat 6 burritos from Taco Bell. Its never assumed that I have diabetes. I am not stared at in public for going on a walk. I can expect to find clothes that fits me at stores. I’m not instantly identified as sloppy. I benefit from these privileges. Do I think its fair? Of course not. Should we blame thin people? Of course not.

No person, of any body type, should be ridiculed because of their shape. A person’s daily routine shouldn't make then a public item to make a joke out of. People like my mother shouldn't be labeled unhealthy because of how she looks. And the source of these problems, are the biases we all have as a culture.

Fat shaming is ingrained in our society via biases we all have as people. Like the common belief that being fat is something to be laughed at. Or beliefs that being thin is the average among people, leading to stores carrying products that large portions of the population can't wear.

So how do we prevent our bias from showing through? Well first of all, by identifying that it exists. Photographer Haley Morris-Cafiero started an art project called Wait Watchers, where she, as a fat person, take photos of people’s reactions to her just doing daily tasks. The project aims to place a focus away from her weight and towards the people making faces at her.

As a thin person, I live my life with inherent privileges. I enjoy eating my 6 burritos from Taco Bell without getting ridiculed. But others can't. Not all people are like me. Recognizing that fact is how we, as a culture, start to provide safer spaces for people of all identities.

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If a Picture's Worth a Thousand Words...

I came across this picture a couple of months ago online and I thought it was priceless. Not priceless as in hilarious,  just...invaluably accurate. Although, not all of us are circles.This, of course isn't just limited to circles, I'm sure further down the wall there were some triangle holes and square holes,  maybe even some nonagonal holes, but the point is, it takes a certain quality to get past certain "walls."

These qualities are what we call privilege. Unlike in this picture,  it isn't so blatantly obvious who has what privilege, but I believe that it boils down the concept of privilege and some basic no no's pretty well.

Insisting something is easy is one of the worst ways that we can impose our privilege on others. Sometimes, it doesn't matter how hard you work or how confident in yourself you are. You will always be a triangle, and that hole will always be circular. There is nothing more aggrivating than having somebody insist that, regardless of your qualities or the issues you face in your life, you have the ability to simply walk through any obstacle in life as if they were tailor made to let you pass. It's like saying every person in every financial situation can afford to buy a house, or that anybody can get married without any issues, or that under every employer equal work means equal pay. None of these are true, but so many times we find ourselves slipping up by assuming that things are as easy for everyone else as they are for us.

Be mindful of who you are and what you say to others, because the cruel reality is that we don't have equal opportunity across the board. That's the basic concept of privilege. 

Sometimes that's a little hard to get, but I feel as if this comic does a really great job of simplifying it so I had to share.

Thoughts?

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My Comment: On DuBois and White Privlege

Teaching WEB DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk (1903) last night to my undergrads at ASU, I was reminded that the context of that piece and his rival Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery is really white privilege, about what to do with blacks just freed from slavery. While DuBois asks the perennial question at the turn of the century—How do we measure progress?—the question is really one that begs a critical examination of American racism that  will show its head no matter how much hall sweeping and brick building Booker T. recommends that free backs do to demonstrate their worth and usefulness.

To acknowledge that racism in America exists is to inherently recognize that whiteness has long been the unchallenged and unproven mark of beauty, achievement, morality and accomplishment. While Booker T. may be practicing his trickster skills in order to persuade/ seduce his rich white  supporters to contribute significant funding to begin and keep open the historical Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, DuBois refused to accept that kind of soul-selling of blacks, offering instead a real plan for self-reliance intellectually and philosophically, albeit an elitist perspective.

My personal connection with the DuBoisian philosophy acknowledges that depending on someone to approve your actions or you is counter to the argument about self-reliance racially, socially, and politically.

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How to Live in Privilege

As I've mentioned before, when it comes to my financial situation, I have what I consider the best of both worlds. My parents are divorced. My father makes a pretty good sum of money while my mother...not so much. Her annual income is anywhere from a quarter to an eighth of his and my dad makes a good sum of money, but no, an eighth of that does not make for comfortable living by any means.  But I feel lucky to come from homes that are so diverse. On one hand, my dad does a pretty good job of making sure that I have what I need even when my mom is struggling financially, on the other, I do know what it is to be without and this gives me a special empathy for the poor that only ones who have lived in poverty can obtain and I consider this a great gift, but I am willing to admit that I am privileged.

I am privileged.

There. I said it.

I am privileged because  despite the fact that I currently live in a low income household, I am well clothed, well fed, and well educated. Not only do I have the opportunity to these things, but my living conditions grants me the ability to take a hold of these opportunities and make them real. Not everybody has that. Some people can have the opportunity to be well educated, but they have disabilities or illnesses that make it extremely difficult to be receptive in a classroom setting. Some have the opportunity to have a roof over their head, clothes and food, but have to chose safety over comfort because they come from abusive homes. As a resident of a town as vanilla as Mesa, Arizona who is perfectly capable of reaping the benefits of being a resident of Arizona, I am very, very privileged.

But I wonder, is there a right way to live in privilege?  Is there something that we are supposed to do past acknowledging the fact that we are privileged? Are we supposed to help everybody who doesn't have the same privileges as us get a leg up in the world?

Earlier this week I was thinking about the unique position the diversity of my family has put me in, and I contemplated how I could make the very best of it. So I reflected not only on myself but the people around me who have privilege in so many aspects and I wondered, what are people with more supposed to do?

I think the answer is to give back. I don't think we're supposed to push our privileges away. Reaping the benefits of one's own privilege is fine, so long as you use these benefits to give back, more specifically, to give back to the ones who have less, who are under privileged.

.

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Privilege In the Eyes of My Hispanic Mother

My mother is a woman of many words. Many repeated words, actually. And it's ironic that her daughter, of all people, writes on a blog about privilege because if I were to make a guess, I'd say her top words are (next to "Chicana") rich, white, and privilege. And just to clarify for those who aren't living in Mesa, Arizona, these three words are basically interchangeable. The members of this community are, for the most part, very affluent and predominately white. As a Hispanic family who struggles to keep above the poverty line, the members of my household are, on paper, a clear minority. Off paper, when it comes to my sisters and I, not so much, but we'll dive more into this one another week. For now, the focus is my mother who, over the years, I have discovered an overwhelming bitterness in, especially for the rich, white members of our community.

It's through this bitterness that "privilege" was introduced to me as a dirty word. After my parents divorced, I was taught that we were fighting against every light skinned, nicely dressed lady I bumped into on the street because it is the privileged that are giving us dirty looks, the privileged cutting us off in the school parking lot, the privileged taking all of the good part-time jobs, the scholarships, the everything-that-is-affordable just because they have the money to take what is theirs. Our lives were hard, but it was the privileged who were oppressing us. At least, that's what I was taught.

Is teaching your children that wrong? Yes.

And yet, it all feels completely justified. My mom is a Hispanic who grew up in Arizona, a part of a generation that forgot how to speak Spanish because their bilingual, bruised parents told them English was the only safe thing to speak. We moved to Mesa, Arizona proven to be the most conservative city in the U.S. in the heat of SB1070. Discrimination is not just the occasional supermarket bigot, it is something that fills the desert air, makes it thick and suffocates the minority. My mom knows that well enough to fully warrant her bitterness. And further, how can a woman, a mother, not feel bitter about her own financial crisis when her children are surrounded by a pool of students more comfortable than they ever could be? When MORE is a tangible, but untouchable reality swinging in front of her face on a a day-to-day basis? 

The way she feels, it makes sense. 

But is it right?

That is the question I am posing today. And my opinion is that, when it comes to Privilege Profiling, empathy is the only thing that can really be extended in this situation. I can understand why my mother says what she does, but that doesn't make it okay to say that my white friends are incapable of extending good manners because their "privlege parents" never taught them to. You don't have to be a fan of privilege. And if you don't have a godlike sense of patience for the privileged, that's okay too. However, letting your viewpoint on privilege affect the way you view and treat people with privilege is not okay. 

Privilege is just another way that we are all different, and, as said before, differences are to de embraced. 

But that's just my take on it.

What do you think? 

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The Perils and Perks of Privilege

College, College, College!!!

As a senior in high school, college readiness is constantly being thrown in my face, and because of this college never stops coming up. This week, my AP English teacher had us organize our college portfolios, making the topic as incessant as ever. Throughout the week, I overheard a lot of interesting questions and comments, and I felt like sharing a couple of them on this blog:

"I'm supposed to write an "adversity essay" for _____University, but nothing bad has ever happened to me. It's really unfortunate to be a middle class white girl."

"Like, I get why minorities get all the scholarships, but it's still really unfair."

"My parents make too much money for me to get financial aide. It sucks."

Initially, I was a little annoyed by these statements, especially since I knew for a fact that all of these 'quotees' were fairly well off, but, after mulling it over for a while, I thought back to the name of the privilege workshop Project Humanities held this summer: The Perils and Perks of Privilege. When we hear the word privilege, the first, and usually only, thing we think about are the perks. By having privilege, we avoid a multitude of conflicts in our life, be it  depression, discrimination, financial instability ect. ect, we all dodge some kind of bullet in some way. But what about the perils? How does our privilege put us at a loss? 

Here's a hint: It has nothing to do with scholarships. 

The greatest disadvantage our privilege causes us is a lack of understanding for others. So many times, we simply focus on the  problems that occur within the context of our own privilege. "Yes, I have had an incredibly easy life, but  I have little life experience because of it." "Yes, I am middle class, but I'm afraid of student loans too." And it's perfectly normal and acceptable to think like this; however, when one acknowledges the perils of their own privilege without acknowledging other's disadvantages, it marginalizes specific groups of society. This is clearly seen through my classmates' quotes. This marginalization causes these groups of people to be neglected, which is bad in of itself. However, if this mentality goes untreated, it can evolve into prejudice, which can not only cause minorities (and I'm not just talking about racial or cultural minorities here) to be neglected, but create obstacles towards breaking through any disadvantages that come with being a part of their minority. 

How can prevent this from happening? 

Embracing the diversity in society is one thing, and it is a good thing, but we could be doing so much more. Try looking at the people around you, and then yourself, and then try to think of all the ways that your privilege makes you a part of the problem. Are there any privileges that you have that blind you from understanding the suffering of others? Then, go beyond bias. Think of ways to be a part of the solution. This is a responsibility of all of us, not just those new to privilege. We can't change the fact that we're all different, but we can change how these differences impact each other's lives. All men were not created the same, but they were created equal, and its time that the community demonstrates this. 

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Tuesday Throwback

Summer is ending, and it's about this time where all the of the responsibility begins to fall on the shoulders of the high school student. First quarter projects are coming up, books are making their way into the curriculum and the speech and debate season is just around the corner. Needless to say, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

I'm still getting used to this whole blogging thing, and I'm not exactly sure how to get access to the articles in the HUM 101 database yet, so, as we ease ourselves into a rhythm, I decided to go a little light today and reflect on the first time I really made myself think about privilege. It was early June this year. I asked Dr. Lester if there was anything I could do to help out long distance, and he suggested that I comment on some of the articles posted on the Project Humanities facebook page, so I did. Once. Not exactly a five-star intern, I know, but some good did come out of it. From this one article, I learned two invaluable lessons.

First: Acknowledging Privilege can be a slippery slope.

The article I focused my attention to was the Huffington Post's "Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person" by Gina Crosley-Corcoran. The author made a lot of great points. For example, that privilege is not exclusive to Caucasian men, but to men in general, to Americans, to the able-bodied, the intelligent and to pretty much anybody who could one-up anybody else in any kind of way. Even so, I couldn't help but feel as if she sounded whiny in her piece, as if she felt the need to constantly justify that, as a white person who suffered financially in her childhood, she was not nearly as privileged as most people would assume.

And that's how acknowledging privilege is a slippery slope. Many times, while one is acknowledging privilege, it become more about justifying oneself, or minimizing the amount of privilege they appear to have, rather than reflecting or trying to understand those who don't have the same privilege.

Does that make sense?

Here's an example: My family has struggled financially ever since my parents got divorced, but I go to a high school that is in the heart of a fairly affluent community. Every time a close friend invites me over for the first time, I'm quick to comment on their gigantic and lavish and all around perfectly beautiful home. And, since they are close friends of mine, later on I will also add "You know how fortunate you are, right?" To this I am not only referring to their gigantic and lavish and all around perfectly beautiful homes, but the fact that they're in a two-parent household, the fact that they've never had to worry about money, and their family's overwhelming sense of stability.  And, since they are close friends of mine, they will understand that when I call them fortunate, I am referring to all these things. And yes, I am definitely making a bit of  mule of myself when I do this, but I feel like it's something important to air. Even more so, it is important to see what they'll say. Sometimes they'll agree. Sometimes they'll get defensive, even offended. For every person who nods, silently counting their blessings, there are two who decide to list every minor conflict they've faced in their life since the fourth grade concluding with "See? It isn't always easy." Well, it isn't always easy.
But we don't call out privilege to say that somebody else has it easier, we do it so that we can acknowledge and reflect upon it. And we use this reflection to better ourselves, because when you take everything that you have for granted, nothing really matters. We use this acknowledgment to better our world because if you honestly think that we're equal, you aren't going to do a thing to promote equality. Which ties into the other lesson this article taught me and that is...

Second, the only "bad" privilege, is overlooked privilege.

There really is nothing bad about being privileged. You can't help that you're cisgendered, rich, white, or healthy. And, quite frankly, being angry at somebody for their privilege is just plain unreasonable. I think that we all need to keep this in mind. The word "privileged" has a connotation synonymous to "stuck up" or "snob." But the opposite is true. There are plenty of extremely nice people who are extremely privileged. I’ve learned that from my classmates. Privilege is simply a part of who we are, and, as said before, if we want to make anything from it, we need to stop sweeping it under the rug and start embracing it.

Crosley-Corcoran’s main claim was that “white privilege” isn't the only kind of privilege, and I agree. There are several different types of privilege, but being able to make an impressive list of them off of the top of your head means nothing. In order to create real progress, we must be open about the privilege we have, and be open to use our privilege to help those who don't have what we do . The question now is, what other privileges do we as a society face? And what can we do to take advantage of this privilege for others?

More answers to come!

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A Line in Sight

Last night I had the honor of hearing Nikki Giovanni speak to a crowd of about 1300 people at the Mesa Arts Center.  Her talk was punctuated by numerous comments that were both humorous and insightful.  Several of which I’m sure I’ll be mulling over for many, many months.  There was one thing she said though, that brought me so much hope.  Hope, is something I've been struggling with lately.

Before Giovanni’s talk, I attended a private reception in her honor.  A colleague and I were discussing how sometimes it feels as though things in the world are getting worse.  Beheadings are becoming an almost weekly occurrence.  In certain parts of the country, a black boy, or even girl, who happens to be near someone with a gun is suddenly in grave danger.  The Ebola epidemic is growing at an exponential rate and is showing no signs of slowing.  Nearly 300 Nigerian school girls are still missing - probably being raped and tortured while we all go on with our lives.  

My colleague and I wondered if it simply appeared that things were getting worse because of advances in social media coupled with the 24 hour news cycle.  He put forth the idea that maybe a hyper focus on certain new stories can actually perpetuate violence or wrong doing.  By the time we finished our conversation and got in line to get some food, a thoughtful, albeit weighty silence had come over us.

Then we went to hear Giovanni speak.  If you've never had the chance to hear her give a talk, find a way to do so before you die.  

She is hilarious, dead serious, and full of innovative ideas for addressing global and local problems - all while never taking herself too seriously.  She's an everyday woman who just happens to be armed to the tenacity to take on just about anything.  

After giving her talk, she and Dr. Lester sat on stage and he fielded questions from the audience and asked a few of his own as well.  One of the things he asked Giovanni was whether or not she thought we are losing our humanity.  She was quick to joke that to ask whether or not we’re losing our humanity assumed that we had some in the first place.

But after a few laughs she said something that brought me such peace.  She said that when people are running a race and get to the point where they can see the finish line, they often feel as if they should be running faster.  Since the finish is so close they begin to sense that maybe they should already be there, that they should already have arrived.

For the most part, we can see the finish line.  Yes, there are people who still hate homosexuals, Jews, people of color, and the like.  However, those individuals have found themselves living on the fringe of society.  Most people consider them to be extremists, disturbed, or grossly uninformed.  No doubt, there is still a lot of work to do in terms of bias, acceptance, and living in a world where people are not unsafe or unaccepted simply because of who they choose to marry or how they choose to love. 

But most of us want to get there.  

We can see the finish line.  Some people think we already crossed it and therefore just need to stop talking about it.  That's another post, but even in that dilemma there is hope.  We want the same thing.  We just disagree on how close we are to achieving it.  

I do believe that we still have a ways to go, but I can see the finish line.  Most of us can see the finish line.  That is a far, far cry from where we were as a nation just sixty years ago. 

Thank you, Nikki Giovani, for reminding me that even though we’re not there yet, we still have cause to celebrate.  

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Privilege 101: An Introduction

Greetings! My name is Rachel Sondgeroth and I am absolutely ecstatic to be writing the first post for Privilege 101! Today's post is mostly house-keeping. Before we officially kick things off, there are a few questions that need to be answered.

First, what is Privilege 101?
Privilege 101 is an offshoot of a series called "Perils & Perks of Privilege" by a program called Project Humanities. The Goal of Project Humanities is to promote members of the community to basically get more in touch with their humanity by talking, listening and connecting with those around us.The Perils & Perks of Privilege series, along with this blog, Privilege 101, convey these very values by encouraging others to reflect upon their own privileges, create strategies to fight their own bias, and build a better personal grasp of the diversity in our global community that way we can more effectively co-exist. As our diverse world makes more and more connections, it becomes exponentially more important that we as a society get to understand not only these cultures, but what it is within ourselves that prevent us from fully understanding them. Privilege is more than just a couple of lucky scratch-offs in the lottery of birth, it is an obstacle to empathy. That is why here at Project Humanities, we feel the need to write an entire blog about it! Our goal here is to raise awareness and promote understanding.

Who am I?

Once again, my name is Rachel. I am eighteen years old, and a senior at Mountain View High School. I got into contact with Dr. Neal Lester last December while researching for a competitive speech I was writing (See: Original Oratory) . My topic: Are We Losing Our Humanity? It just so happened that Dr. Lester hosted a panel discussing this very topic in Washington D.C. two years ago. I emailed him some questions, the Project came up and I instantly wanted a part of it. Since I just moved back to Arizona in July and my extra-curriculars have no trouble soaking up every second of my free time, actually getting involved has been, well, a work in progress. But! Lo and behold here I am, co-writing this blog and I could not be any more excited. I'm happy to finally be helping out and I'm eager to see what I learn along the way!


I'll be posting every Tuesday, while my co-authors, Yvette Johnson and Neal Lester, along with some other guest-posters will be updating the blog here and there on different days of the week. Overall, it's going to be a lot of fun.  Did I mention that I'm excited? I'm really excited.

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