Privilege is a topic getting a lot of attention right now. We talk about it in relation to race, to gender, to class, to nationality, to sexual identity, to ability, and the list goes on. But no matter what form of privilege we refer to, there is an invisible element to privilege that can make those with it, feel like they don’t have it.
Middle-aged, straight white men are the classic example. They have hit society’s privilege jackpot - that is undeniable - but does that mean they feel their privilege? Not necessarily.
You see, privilege is not just something that makes your life easier, it’s also something that doesn’t make your life harder.
Let me say that again. When you have privilege, it’s not that your life is easy, it’s that it’s less hard in certain, predictable ways.
For example, you work hard at your job and sacrifice a lot, but you are able-bodied so you don’t have to overcome as many obstacles as a blind person does in the same job. You both work hard, and sacrifice a lot, but the blind person overcomes more obstacles in their day-to-day existence than you do, as someone with full vision. It doesn't take away from how hard you work, or what other obstacles you face, it just means that when it comes to navigating the visual world fully, you have the privilege of not overcoming those daily obstacles.
You might not notice the privilege of an Anglo sounding name when it comes to job-hunting, because you still have to have the right experience, demonstrate that you can do the job and nail the interview, just like everyone else. But what you might not notice is that some people with more ethnic sounding names, won’t even get the opportunity to have the interview in the first place. Whilst job hunting is not always easy for everyone, it’s predictably harder for some more than others, due to additional obstacles.
Privilege does not mean easy. It means an experience without certain obstacles.
It is an invisible advantage that often doesn’t feel like an advantage, and therein lies the rub. If I don't feel I have a special advantage over anyone else, it makes it hard for me to hear the issues of those without privilege.
So what do we do?
Expecting people with privilege to just ‘get it’ and be more supportive and be better advocates for others, is unhelpful and unrealistic. We want people to be aware of their privilege so they feel inspired to help, not obligated to act. The question then is, ‘Do I have privilege and how can I tell, if I can’t really feel it?’
The first step to uncovering the invisible advantage of privilege is to check if you belong to any traditionally privileged groups – race, nationality, gender, ability, sexuality etc. If you fall into a privileged category but have never really identified with the privilege, ask those not in that group about their own experiences.
For example, if you are straight, speak to someone from the LGBTQI community to understand the barriers they may have faced, that you’ve never had to deal with. If you are a man, speak with a woman about her experiences at work. If you are white and a native English speaker, speak to someone from a different background with English as a second language. Seek to genuinely understand their experiences, so that you can fully appreciate your own.
We can’t resolve the issues of privilege if we can’t identify our own. We must all do this work. Every one of us belongs to a group with privilege, and every one of us belongs to a group without it. The more we can understand the experience of having privilege, and lacking privilege, the more able we are to make the changes necessary to challenge the status quo and dismantle the structures holding inequity in place.