Privilege

I have major privilege! I have much more potential “power” than a significant majority of other USians. In this section, and the section that follow below, I will discuss both the importance of privilege, and how we can fail miserably when we simplistically label others as “privileged”.

My privilege includes that I am:

White
Male
Upper-Middle Class
Cis-Gendered
Highly “educated”
Physically and mentally healthy and
An Adult

My life partner has similar privilege, with the exceptions that she is:

Black
Female
Queer Identified
Physically challenged

Others lacking my privilege are treated differently in significant ways such as they:

are often followed by security personnel when shopping in stores,
feel compelled to cross streets in the dark, to avoid passing a man walking in their direction,
avoid exceeding the speed limit – at all – when driving,
never make u-turns,
are EXTREMELY careful during traffic stops out of a fear of being killed.

Lacking privilege is stressful! I can and do take a lot of things for granted, that my life partner and others must pay significant attention to.

Being aware of, and paying attention to privilege, is important! It also isn’t the whole picture!

Trauma significantly impacts the lives of many people! A man may feel traumatized hearing repeated stories about local urban crime. Their suburban home may feel unsafe.

The feelings are real, regardless of whether they are grounded in reality. People with unresolved feelings can easily be open to the emotion laden words of others. Politicians, television commentators and other public figures often exploit such fears with manipulative rhetoric.

Many white people, especially white men, feel threatened by our changing country. The increasing numbers and influence of immigrants and other BIPOC challenge their self-worth simply by being who they are. Often their feelings are deeply tied to racist resentment as well as homo/trans phobias.

Levels of trauma can, of course be deep, including for example:

witnessing close friends or relatives being killed,
losing a parent while young, or
being raised by an abusive parent.

Republicans, some wealthy people and the right-wing play off working class white people against their Black and Latino counterparts. They label us: socialists, radicals, elitist-liberals, and much more.

Frequently we play along with the right by arguing facts. They ignore the facts or readily discount them. Fear and emotions are what we are up against. Parents fears for their children, varied economic fears in a world of seeming shrinking resources, and similar, are dwelled upon by Fox News, Republican politicians, and others who profit from their words.

Where people experience clear racism, they often face extensive additional trauma related to multiple horrible things that they have lived through. Some have lost close friends to police killings, being held-up at gunpoint, and being sexually and/or physically abused. Those facing racism are immaterial to the right.