The concept of 'privilege'

[rousseau]

Privilege is a word that I keep seeing thrown around a lot these days, usually by the feminists in my life. Most of the time they use privilege to refer to what you have if you're white, male, middle-class, and able-bodied, but I've seen the concept expand to other things such as 'thin privilege'. The whole conversation seems analogous to some of the threads we've had in the past where people discuss being 'white and male' as the easiest life setting.

As far as I can tell privilege is a concept that's usually used for people to play the victim card against some other subset of society. "YOU HAVE PRIVILEGE AND I DON'T BECAUSE". But I think the reality of privilege is more complex than that. Consider some other concepts of privilege:

• Geographical privilege
• Intelligence privilege
• Appearance privilege
• Ambiversion privilege
• Ability privilege

Say that we looked at the issue objectively and found every possible trait that could convey privilege, we broke the characteristics of each trait down into granules, and we gave point totals to every trait in an objective way. At that point almost every individual would find themselves on a complicated, multi-dimensional spectrum that would lead to the whole concept being nearly meaningless.

We've agreed that being white confers a lot of points, but that doesn't guarantee life success among all considered factors. We've agreed that being male confers advantage over women, but being female does not preclude life success.

So with that said, what's the point of the concept of privilege at all? Why is it ok to generalize in this way when we're describing positive traits, as opposed to negative traits, and what does this even tell us, if anything? I don't want to go around shouting 'female privilege' and start a men's or white people's rights movement, but it seems ridiculous to me to say something like 'white men' have privilege, when I see destitute white men with no teeth on the bus every day.

What do you think? What am I missing?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

That's like saying that you don't see how having an MBA is an advantage in the job market because you know some unemployed MBAs. Statistically speaking, a higher percentage of MBAs have jobs than non-MBAs and those jobs tend to pay better.

Privileges are things which give you advantages, they aren't things which guarantee success. If you're a white male, you have a leg up on the competition. If your parents are rich, you have a leg up on the competition. If that additional advantage means that you have a 25% chance of success as opposed to a 20% chance of success, that's still a decent advantage but three quarters of your group aren't going to be successful.

 

[bigfield]

We've agreed that being male confers advantage over women, but being female does not preclude life success.

But even then it depends on what qualifies as life success. Many conversations on this subject focus on career success only.

 

[travc]

Privileges are things which give you advantages, they aren't things which guarantee success. If you're a white male, you have a leg up on the competition. If your parents are rich, you have a leg up on the competition. If that additional advantage means that you have a 25% chance of success as opposed to a 20% chance of success, that's still a decent advantage but three quarters of your group aren't going to be successful.

True enough on the whole "chance" thing... But you're missing a big point IMO.

Advantage in what context?

Yeah, most of the time people are talking about making money or not getting thrown in jail for stupid shit, but if you want to have a rational converstaion about privilege, then I think you really need to explicity state the context. Privilige with respect to what?

 

[rousseau]

That's like saying that you don't see how having an MBA is an advantage in the job market because you know some unemployed MBAs. Statistically speaking, a higher percentage of MBAs have jobs than non-MBAs and those jobs tend to pay better.

Privileges are things which give you advantages, they aren't things which guarantee success. If you're a white male, you have a leg up on the competition. If your parents are rich, you have a leg up on the competition. If that additional advantage means that you have a 25% chance of success as opposed to a 20% chance of success, that's still a decent advantage but three quarters of your group aren't going to be successful.

Granted. Then we can extend the concept of privilege to encompass everything, with poor, black, disabled, stupid, over-weight, ugly, homosexual women born in third world countries to really come out on the bottom.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

From the wiki on Privilege

Privilege differs from conditions of overt prejudice, in which a dominant group actively seeks to oppress or suppress another group for its own advantage. Instead, theories of privilege suggest that the privileged group views its social, cultural, and economic experiences as a norm that everyone should experience, rather than as an advantaged position that must be maintained at the expense of others. Rather than being something that is earned, privilege is something that is given to a person based on characteristics they are assigned at birth, such as cultural identity and class.

In the 1970 movie, The Landlord actress Diane Sand's character gives birth to a boy, fathered by Beau Bridges' character. In the hospital recovery room, she tells the father he has to take the baby because she wants wants this very white looking child to "grow up casual, like his father."

That sums up privilege.

Growing up casual.

Doesn't mean you don't have problems or hard things to do and think about, just that there are so many things you don't have to do, so many things you don't have to think about, that to people who do have to deal with those things, your life is a casual life

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And do keep in mind, privilege comes in many flavors and while you may experience white privilege in your favor, your class, gender, sexual orientation, etc maybe working against you.

 

[The Paul]

Every time you acknowledge the concept of privilege a white guy somewhere feels vaguely guilty, and since you're unfairly targeting white people, that makes you a racist.

 

[George S]

Privilege has Latin roots: Private law. Nobility, in England, was subject to different cultural laws. To the manor born. To the manner born. A wielder of wealth. A giver of orders.

On a smaller scale there is the right to do our best to make our children privileged to a degree by endowing them with inheritance. By helping them with a new home or funding their business venture. When the wealth is truly huge there may be generations of privilege.

We have a set of powerful families in the US, too. Wealth is power.

Consider the case of the wealthy child given probation and mental treatment for murder having suffered from "affluenza" (too affluent to have known better).

The wealthy should not have a private law; and yet they do. The wealthy cocaine addict is given treatment while his low wealth cousin finds himself incarcerated. The wealthy man found with felony amounts of marijuana gets a deal while his impoverished brother rots in jail.

Is there a fix?