The Importance Of Being Aware Of Our Privilege
Privilege and oppression are terms we aren’t taught in school. We are told to avoid bias, to not discriminate, and to avoid prejudice, but we aren’t taught to recognize when we have been advantaged. Being aware of our privilege allows us to be more mindful of other people. It allows us to recognize things that we may have normally been oblivious of. It will allow us to speak up more, to enact change more, and to just be a decent human being to other people. It will allow us to make people less uncomfortable, have more conscientiousness in social situations. This will allow us to have more compassion, to realize when someone feel unsafe.
Being aware of what it might be like to be someone else. You can’t act as if every person around you is living their life through with the exact same resources you may be fortunate to have access to. There are certain times where I wished people would have been more sensitive to my oppression. When I was in High School, I wasn’t able to participate in all the organized sports I wanted to, because of the cost. But many of my friends believed it was because I was too afraid to play with them. I don’t believe that people should feel guilty because they are more privileged than other people. I don’t believe that a man should feel bad because he got the job and the woman didn’t. I believe that people should learn to recognize and challenge these situations. I try and listen to people when they speak up about their oppression and support them.
Privilege is like a race between two people of equal athletic ability, one wearing a blindfold and given a head start against the other, and taking the victory. It is not something that they should feel guilty about, but it is up to the racer to not let the referees put the blindfold on them. Or, to at least, hear the story of the racer who lost.
Privilege plays on intersectionality - many people have aspects of them that are privileged, but in many situations they may be oppressed. My sexuality, my mixed heritage, and my gender are all things that I believe have disadvantaged me in my life. The negatives are obvious to me, but the privilege I have is harder to recognize. I am fully abled, I am educated and I am half-white - these are all things that have advantaged me. I have many identities that play into each other. It is important for me to recognize this in situations that may be sensitive.
