Columnists
Count your blessings
Let’s talk about privilege. It’s a loaded word. One that, despite its meaning, has become pregnant with greater meanings, developed out of resentment and misunderstanding, like the word feminist.
We’ll start by clearing the air. Privilege doesn’t mean you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. It doesn’t mean you have any wealth or power that you can perceive. But if you are reading this right now, you are privileged.
You are privileged because you can read, for one thing. You are not one of the 42 per cent of adults who have low or no literacy skills. You’re also likely sighted.
You are most likely living in Canada, a country that provides its citizens with a public pension and public health care.
Now, each of us have our own privilege. Our own way in which we are, inherently, advantaged, whether we see it or not. Whether it’s gender, ethnicity, sexuality physical ability or any of the other ways in which people can differ, being in the majority gives us an advantage over being in the minority.
A person who can walk has the privilege of accessing spaces that are not accessible to someone in a wheelchair. A person who is straight doesn’t have to fear homophobic violence or discrimination.
It’s important to remember this: having privilege does not mean you’ve done something wrong. It’s a state of being. Just as your elders likely told you as a child, you can count your blessings. (Of course, I say that as a person privileged to grow up with parents and grandparents who loved and guided me.)
The thing about privilege is that it is almost invisible to the people who have it. A white person doesn’t spend every day thinking about their race and how that affects their lives. A family with kids who can get their homework done on a computer don’t spend much time thinking about the fact that some families could never afford a computer.
It’s not a question of being selfish, it’s perspective. To someone with privilege, the effects of not having that privilege are not immediately conceivable, because those effects are out of their line of sight.
The word is not being used as an attack on the white and middle class. It is just a way to remind ourselves that, since we probably do have it better than someone else, we should consider that when we make public statements and decisions.
Like wearing a feathered headdress as a fashion statement. Without being a member of a first nation. Without knowing its cultural and spiritual significance. Without knowing the oppression that culture has experienced.
Like dismissing the word privilege itself, and other words like it that folks who are feeling systematic oppression are using to try to explain their situation.
If you are the type to react that way, the next time someone mentions privilege, instead of rolling your eyes try to imagine a life fearing authority because of the colour of your skin. A world where sending your kid to school is a pipe dream. Shift your perspective. You can’t do anything about your own privilege, but you can listen to the people who don’t have it and empathize.
And count your blessings.
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