Opinions of a Wandering Waif

cijimcb:

waifsworld:

cijimcb: There is nothing wrong with having privilege.

cijimcb:

Having privilege doesn’t mean you are inherently evil, unless you wield said privilege to do evil things. Having privilege doesn’t mean you are inherently racist, unless you wield said privilege to do/say/think racist things.

Having privilege doesn’t mean you are need to be ashamed of it, unless…

Fuck.  If I had any brains at all, I’d stay the hell out of this discussion, but I just can’t.  This post, while sincerely meant, scares the piss out of me.  Look at it, and tell me it is distinctly different than the racket the fundies run against the LGBTQQ community…there’s nothing wrong with being born gay, just don’t act on it, it’s evil. 

Am I way off base, or does anyone else see the similarity?

This privilege discussion is important, but it is a sticky wicket, and one can easily be hoisted by one’s own petard. ~ waif

Hold up.  That’s not what I’m talking about.  I’m talking about folks who like to pretend they don’t have privilege, when they so clearly do.  I’m talking about White men who like to cry “reverse racism” when they are taken to task about the privileged things thay do/think/say.

I’m not even sure what fundie argument you are referring to.  I am not saying “there’s nothing wrong with being born gay, just don’t act on it, it’s evil”!  NOT AT ALL!  All too often, we we have discussions about privilege, the privileged ones prefer not to acknowledge they have it because then, they’d be evil, racist, assholes.  What I am saying is, if you were born with privilege, admit it.  There’s no shame in saying “I have privilege because I am [whatever]”.  I’m saying that privilege doesn’t make you inherently evil. I’m saying that admitting your privileges is a necessary part of the discussion. 

you’ve got to know you are privileged in order to understand why X group is feeling upset over something you said/did.  The better you understand you privilege, the better you understand why it’s not OK for upper-class college girls to take pictures with Africans and caption them “I’m in my element” or get their hair braided and proclaim “I’m African now!”  That’s what I’m talking about.

This is not about being “proud” of your privilege.  It’s about owning up to the fact you have in it the first place.  And shutting up long enough to learn something from a less-privileged group.

This is about making the privilege challenge their privilege.  Period.

If privilege is something you’re born into, other than be aware of it, there is not much you can do to change it. It sounded to me like you found the exercise of “inherited privilege” something evil.  At any event, your responding post is not saying what I thought I saw in the prior, so thanks for the clarification.

A lot of privilege is unconscious, I think.  It has to be brought to one’s attention, as you say.  Other privilege is obvious, like wealth.  Some privilege is much more subtle.  I bet neither one of us fully recognizes how privileged we are. We can’t challenge or admit to that, somebody else has to do it for us.

And for all of our privilege, we are also underprivileged in other areas, all of us are, even rich, white, American males.  I believe we’re all walking wounded:  somewhere, there is damage.  I think that’s why there’s push-back from privileged peoples, when confronted with their privilege.  They’re still hurting, on some other front.

That expression, “I’m in my element,” doesn’t mean to me what it means to you, I don’t think.  When I use that expression, I am saying “I fucking love where I am at, right now. This is why I was born.”  Could it be that’s what the caption means?  Is it still bad, then?  Is it appropriating, if expressing delight in current circumstances?

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