Privilege

Privilege produces BLIND SPOTS: we cannot see our own bias and we think that we deserve our station in life.

While this may be the case to an extent (what we achieve involves hard work!), some individuals have more privilege than others because we tend to favor people who belong to our own group and who are not seen as belonging to minorities.

Racism was created by colonial ideas of white superiority; sexism, by long entrenched ideas of male superiority; homophobia, by long established ideas of what a couple should look like; ableism, by our ideas of what is seen as ‘normal’ bodies… and so on…

Entrenched ideas of superiority for certain groups may have already become so normalized that they are sustained in representations and perceptions of disadvantaged minorities.

Look at the message in the picture above, why do you think that: “It’s hard to see racism when you’re white?” The answer is simple: Racism is never directed at you.

Being white affords privilege because people who are perceived as white do not have to think about race as an issue that affects them… unless we talk about “white fragility.” The following video explains this term with irony and humour:

Here is another humorous video on “reverse racism”:

To help you explore privilege further, please click on the link for clear illustrations of these types of privilege:

• Class privilege
• White privilege
• Male privilege

Check your privilege here!