I posted this on that I ♥️ cops spam post, and now that it’s been removed I thought having it as a stand alone topic might help increase community understanding for when certain topics come up.

Privilege

What is privilege?

It’s something someone has that is not available to everyone. In this context, it ties to our identities. We may be able to change certain aspects of our privilege, others we can not.

In regards to race, white privilege simply means that someone will most likely not have to deal with systemic disadvantage due to their race.

*A white person is less likely to be profiled and pulled over by police for no reason.

*A white person is more likely to be politically represented by someone of their own race.

*A white person is less likely to face hiring discrimination in the workplace.

This does not mean that a white person will never face interpersonal racial prejudice. Name calling and bullying may happen, but it doesn’t extend to a macro level of systemic racism.

Colorism and white passing privilege are related concepts. Sometimes PoC are coded as light skinned/white and may have some privilege over darker skinned individuals of the same race. It does not mean they have total white privilege in all situations, but it means they may have a somewhat different experience when dealing with the world at large.

Are you a white person reading this and getting angry, thinking well my life has not been easy at all? That’s because of a concept known as intersectionality. Privilege is not a zero sum game. Different parts of our identities work together to complete a whole person.

*Financial privilege is a thing.

*Health/ weight/able bodied privilege is a thing.

*Male privilege is a thing.

*Citizenship privilege is a thing.

*Heterosexual/Cisgender privilege is a thing.

There’s lots more, feel free to add to my list in the comments section.

This is why we’ve seen people who are very privileged in some areas face challenges in others. I don’t blame people for not understanding this concept. It hasn’t been taught particularly well. Websites like Buzzfeed and their privilege calculator make it seem like a complicated mathematical formula you can punch in to figure out if is someone is altogether privileged or not. In reality it’s a much more nuanced discussion involving honest self reflection. Now that we all know better though, let’s try and do better.

Maybe it would help the community if we shared some experiences with privilege:

What is one time you have faced discrimination due to your identity?

What is one time you haven’t had to deal with something difficult because of your identity?

If you don’t want to use a personal example (understandable) can you name a recent news or celebrity story in which identity and privilege are relevant?