On Privilege

 Privilege, as it used and understood in the present day social context, continues to be a loaded term.  The concept is denied and ridiculed by some as political correctness.  Others accept its relevance to the problems inherent in our present day miseries.  I will attempt to explicate privilege as I understand it.

There is White Privilege, which invariably presents itself for causcasians as an unconscious (or conscious) belief that their rights and needs will be (and should be) satisfied above all.  A useful example of this is illustrated by some common “white” responses to the slogan “Black Lives Matter”.  One goes “All Lives Matter”.  But what is meant by repeating this tautology?  The speaker is obviously convinced of his own right to life, and assumes that everyone feels this way for all people.  Black people don’t necessarily agree, given the rampant and systemic racism that permeates western cultural and social structures.  It is impossible to argue that non-whites are adequately represented in government, entertainment and corporate power structures, or that they do not face racist views in the criminal justice systems, hiring practices, public education, medical care and housing.   So it is easy to see why they would believe themselves under-valued, to put it all too mildly.

The second common refrain to the Back movement is that black-on-black violence is more prevalent, and implicitly shows that blacks are responsible for their own plight.  For some reason, the issue of white-on-white violence (which obviously dwarfs that of police killings of white people) is never raised.  The underlying causes of any social violence and criminal behaviours is simply ignored, echoing the concerns of the previous paragraph.

There is Male Privilege, which is understood as the belief that males should be the dominant power in western society.  After all, it has always been so, starting with the caveman (or so the mythology goes).  Power goes to the strongest.  As with anyone designated in positions of power, the tendency then will be to do what is necessary to retain the privileges (since they are what must be).  There are many levels of this privilege.  Males in actual power positions use and abuse it at their whim, usually at the expense of females (although not exclusively so).  The institution of marriage was, in the relatively recent past, as a form of ownership.  The advent  of suffragism and thence feminism made substantial inroads in chipping away at this hegemony, but also gave rise to a backlash.  

Men are apparently being replaced in the workplace, from the rightful place as head of the family.  In fact, it is more apparent that some proportion of men are failing to change with the evolving economic conditions, unable to recognize the value of post-secondary education.  “Real Men’ movements and the pathetic Incel tribalism can be traced back to this feeling of supposed emasculation, even though it is clear that Male Privilege is far from extinguished in most cultures.  The #MeToo movement is incontrovertible evidence of that.

Finally, there is the Privilege of Wealth (synonymous with class in western culture), and not just the ultra-rich who can jet away to private islands at the first sign of a pandemic.  The upper middle class live comfortably in the enclaves, sheltered from the realities and struggles of poverty, lack of proper health care and shelter, etc.  The divide between rich and poor is stark and ever growing. 

It is essential that people begin the process of acknowledging the predominant role that privilege plays in our societies.  It is not enough to proclaim colour blindness or a belief in the equality of all.  There needs to be a deeper recognition that the horrific injustices of the past, slavery and genocide and apartheid to name but a few, continue to haunt our institutions and laws.  There must be a reckoning with this legacy, and a concerted, continual effort to revamp our inherited biases.  It is difficult to see, in the midst of a messy present replete with populist demagogues exploiting prejudice for their own gain, that there has been a slow yet unsteady progress towards better social norms over the past centuries.  Hopefully, this will not be undone in the next decades, as mankind faces perhaps its greatest challenges (pandemics, economic upheaval, climate change, the rise of oligarchs and dictators) in a millenia.