Ok, so my boring take on this: I think the word privilege is overused. In my mind there is a basic level of human decency everyone should be treated with. If you are treated above and beyond that, you have some privilege. Situations like the one mentioned in this post (to my mind) don’t speak to a lack of privilege, but to the presence of oppression.
Privilege comes from “private law”, so would mean the ability to be judged in a different way to other people and therefore to perhaps avoid punishment for things others would suffer.
I’d agree with that, but calling it privilege is a bad name. Because how do you implement equality when dealing with privilege? You take from the privileged to level the playing field. So when you apply that to being privileged because you aren’t being discriminated against, the solution is to remove that privilege? So… do more discrimination so everyone is equal?
When you instead identify those that are oppressed and those that are not, the solution to equality is to remove the oppression. So when applied to our situation, remove the discrimination so everyone is equally not discriminated against.
Shouldnt be and being are two different concepts. Lack of discrimination shouldnt be a privilege, but it is. I dont think hiding it is a part of the solution
Ok, so my boring take on this: I think the word privilege is overused. In my mind there is a basic level of human decency everyone should be treated with. If you are treated above and beyond that, you have some privilege. Situations like the one mentioned in this post (to my mind) don’t speak to a lack of privilege, but to the presence of oppression.
Privilege comes from “private law”, so would mean the ability to be judged in a different way to other people and therefore to perhaps avoid punishment for things others would suffer.
I see your point, but I do think that “privilege” is normally used in a way that includes freedom from oppression.
I’d agree with that, but calling it privilege is a bad name. Because how do you implement equality when dealing with privilege? You take from the privileged to level the playing field. So when you apply that to being privileged because you aren’t being discriminated against, the solution is to remove that privilege? So… do more discrimination so everyone is equal?
When you instead identify those that are oppressed and those that are not, the solution to equality is to remove the oppression. So when applied to our situation, remove the discrimination so everyone is equally not discriminated against.
Shouldnt be and being are two different concepts. Lack of discrimination shouldnt be a privilege, but it is. I dont think hiding it is a part of the solution