Embrace Your Privilege!

Back in the old days, privilege was something that one was generally proud of. To belong to an aristocratic family, or a family of means, was considered a big social plus: something to be bragged about, or even lied about. People from ‘good’ families were considered to have better taste, and to be more worth listening to, than people from ‘lesser’ families.

Now, though, the tables seem to have turned. Now, the opinions of someone coming ‘from a place of privilege’ are considered to be less worth listening to than those of people who have experienced ‘oppression’ of some kind or other. Members of various groups vie with one another for the title of ‘most oppressed’, while those with supposed privilege are vilified for not doing everything possible to dismantle it.

White, heterosexual, non-transgendered, able-bodied men, particularly those from well-to-do families, are considered to be the most privileged of the privileged in North American society. It is said that social institutions are set up to aid this demographic the most, and that various forms of ‘structural discrimination’ operate to disadvantage competitors from other groups.

I am a member of this particular demographic. Do I reap the benefits of all of these wonderful forms of privilege? Let us, for the sake of argument, assume that I do. According to social justice advocates, now that I recognize my privileges, I should feel perpetually guilty about them, and do everything possible to dismantle them. But I… have a different idea…

You say that I’m fantastically privileged? Great! That means I’m winning! Why on earth would I try to dismantle the very thing that provides me with so many advantages? You say it’s not fair that I should be so privileged, while others are not? Well… life’s not fair. I’m highly intelligent and dashingly handsome, while others are stupid and ugly. That’s not fair either. But I’m not about to snort a bunch of bath salts and slice up my face in order to level that particular playing field.

The same applies to social privilege. If I can hold on to it, I will; if I can’t, then I won’t. Just don’t expect me to voluntarily undermine my own advantages by ‘checking my privilege’: because it’s never going to happen.