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!