Why Can’t You Just Own Your Damn Privilege?
It’s not that hard.
Come on, white people. Let’s resolve to do better, shall we?
Wowza, do privileged people resist admitting they’re privileged! Why is that? It isn’t something that can be taken from you, if that’s what you’re afraid of. Not that doing a little power-sharing would hurt you all that much, but on the topic of privilege let’s do try to relax.
We won’t even start with how hard you have worked to get where you are. That, friends, is a deflection. Try to remember there are people who could work ten times as hard and never get to where you are. Privilege is not something we worked for, except in rehab when we wanted to get out for the weekend. That’s why we call it “privilege.”
And just as the word “but” renders an apology completely nullified (actually, it turns an apology into an attack, a topic for another day), here the word “but” (often followed by “what about”) proves the point. It proves you are privileged, with a bit of asshole topspin to boot.
Why can’t you just clam up and listen?
I had to get a Ph.D. before it became easy for me to say, “I don’t know.” Please don’t put yourself through that torture just so you can get to a place where you can imagine other people might have something to teach you. Not knowing is way more…