I’ve been
thinking lately about privilege. Most people think of privilege as something
they have or had – “ancient rights and privileges”, “I had the privilege of
meeting so-and-so last year…” etc.
But
privilege, in the political sense, also has another meaning. It’s about what
you don’t have to deal with, what doesn’t happen to
you, because of your race, gender, religion, sexuality, neurology, or whatever.
It’s what you take for granted as so normal that you don’t give it a second
thought – unless for some reason you suddenly get deprived of it, or become
aware of what those without it suffer. Though even if an individual is
made aware of their privilege, they usually want to deny it even exists. As one
person in a Facebook conversation about this said – “The thing with privilege is that those with it …are
unaware of it. And many do not want to see it because it rocks the foundation
of who they feel they are.”
I first
became aware of privilege in this sense when I was in the feminist and
anti-racism movements, back in the 80s. I of course don’t have male privilege,
or heterosexual, or even able-bodied, now. But I do have the privilege that
goes with my white skin and European ancestry.
So I know
that as a white person, I can, say, walk down a street in a high-income area
without having people think I’m there either to clean a house or to rob it.
I’ve never had anyone assume that I got a job because of my skin colour, not my
abilities. I’ve never been sneered at or hassled by shop staff because of my race,
nor feared being arrested because of it. And if I read a history book, people
of my race are almost certain to feature prominently, and usually positively,
in it.
Similarly,
no man walking into a boardroom for the first time is likely to have people assume
he’s there either to make the tea or take notes. (Yes, even now that still
happens.) They never have to think about glass ceilings or equal pay. They can
fearlessly walk alone late at night, and sleep around without fear someone will
think them a slut. Date rape is not a worry for them. And so on. (And this is
just in Western countries. Imagine the male privilege in non-Western ones.)
And then
there’s heterosexual privilege – your average straight person never has to
worry about being denied a marriage license, or being allowed to adopt or
foster children, or even to retain custody of their own children. Yet until
fairly recently, all these have been routinely denied gays and lesbians, and
still are in many countries. In fact in some countries, gays and lesbians still
live in fear for their lives. And they aren’t all Third World countries either.
Russia has a particularly bad track record of this, and it’s getting worse.
So what
does privilege mean for the non-disabled, and/or non-autistic?
For the non-disabled,
it means things like never having to worry whether you can physically enter a
building, or easily get to where you need to be if you do get in.
It means
you don’t have to think about whether you can find housing you can access, or
whether you’ll be allowed on to a bus or train or plane, or denied a safe place
to put yourself when you do get on.
You don’t
have to worry that you will be talked to as if you’re stupid, or have others
ignore your wishes and make decisions about your life against your will, based
solely on your physical abilities and needs.
You’re
never expected to be the ‘token’ person of your ability levels, or be
constantly told how ‘inspirational’ you are, just for doing normal, everyday
things.
If you’re
not autistic, if you get bullied, it’s unlikely anyone will tell you your
neurology is to blame, and that if only you acted more like others, it
would stop.
You don’t
have to plan your day around the fear of inducing sensory overload, and you can
change plans if need be without risking panic and meltdowns.
You needn’t
fear that people will ignore what you’re saying because of your neurology, or
consider you a ‘burden’ because of it, or decide that any and all problems you
have, even medical ones, are due to it.
You’ll never
have to fear being attacked because of your neurology, or that police officers
will take your normal body movements the wrong way, and arrest or even shoot
you because of it.
Perhaps
most chillingly of all, if you are murdered by your parents or caregivers,
no-one will say that “you’re better off dead”, and offer sympathy to your
killer/s, based on your neurological style or physical ability levels. Yes,
this does happen, and all too frequently, alas.
This is
just the tip of the iceberg of the privileges of all the above groups. For more
information about privileges, check out the following websites :
http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/01/neurotypical-privilege/:
http://www.unholyamerican.com/2013/11/privelege-checklist.html
And yes, many of the above privileges, or lack of them, intersect.
You can have, or not have, more than one sort of privilege. Imagine how they
begin to stack up, and you see why some people’s lives are much easier, while
some others almost don’t stand a chance.
And here’s the thing about privilege – there’s no point in
either denial or guilt. Back in the 80s, I was in the New Zealand anti-racism
and feminist movements. I realised then that guilt is a useless emotion, as it
changes nothing. You’re not a bad person for being born white, male, straight,
able-bodied, or whatever, anymore than others of us are bad for not being any
or all of these things. What’s needed is to acknowledge your privilege
as a simple fact – and then, hopefully, do whatever you can to ensure that
those without it also gain it. I’m not saying that’s easy, or that all of us
have to be hotshot activists, but we can always find some little thing to do to
change things.
But start with simple acknowledgement. Just facing the truth
can go a long way.
