a few non-exhaustive words about privilege

[sophiaserpentia]

A friend pointed me to this list of privilege the other day. Quoting bits which are relevant to frequent discussion in this journal:

privilege is consistently responding to disagreement, criticism, and concerns with condescension and hostility, then accusing the unprivileged of being irrational, inconsistent, duplicitous, guileful, and unappeasable

privilege is feeling entitled to the conformity in behaviours and attitudes of the unprivileged

privilege is not having to be self-conscious and self-critical

privilege is the habit of seeking power and influence over others

the privileged sees power over others as success

privilege is the ability to start, end, and avoid discussion with little consequence

privilege is shelter from direct consequences

privilege is feeling entitled to be better off than others

I want to add a few of my own:

Privilege means not having to wonder, ever, if people around you are regularly putting your needs ahead of theirs.

Privilege means being able to laugh at certain kinds of joke instead of being aware of your inferiority.

Privilege means not having to worry about the effects of your words or actions.

Edit. It was correctly pointed out that this list reflects the automatic assumption or perhaps assertion-by-default of privilege.

Comments

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I started off by talking about comments made where people are unconcerned about the effects those comments will have on others, and trying to pass them off as humor, and trying to make people feel bad if they take offence at malicious jokes.

This is not the same as my expressions of anger, which i do not try to pass off as humor, which i do not tell people to "get over it" if they are offended by. I never make a comment in anger without feeling bad afterwards. I know my expressions of anger are problematic. (In fact, i want my anger to go away entirely, that way i'll never offend anybody.)

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Speaking from experience about anger - I rarely get truly angry anymore, and I still offend people quite often. So that assertion is untrue. Better to get a handle on the anger so that you're using *it* instead of *it* using you.

Also, I'm not your enemy, regardless of what other people may think. I just disagree with some of your premises. Okay?