So at this point in social justice, we now have people derisively saying things like 'Social Justice Tumblr' or 'Twitter activists,' which point out problematic themes, just not the one of note for this post. Another major theme of this ongoing 'battle' between social justice activists or advocates of any ilk and those who disagree to varying degrees is people who also talk about privilege as though it doesn't exist. There's no doubt that this word leaves a bad taste in many people's mouths, some because it's 'overused' and others because they think it's a stupid concept. Regardless, there's a big reason behind this. We're too used to seeing things in essentialistic terms and, most of all, we're scared to use the mental energy it takes to process these distressful feelings and we take the easy, defensive, route.
What I've noticed is that the idea of privilege is denied or put in scare quotes or mocked in ways that make marginalized people seem out of pocket for bringing it up. A lot of people stop at the anger or sadness or whatever when the concept is brought up and don't process any further. They stay there. This is why I hear things like "Well, I grew up poor," or "What am I supposed to do?" when I bring it up. These visceral and distressful feelings stop people in their tracks. This feeling of dissonance is directly counter to the belief that you aren't racist or sexist. It highlights that, even as a function of who you are beyond your control, you're playing into a system that benefits you and not others. Instead of using these feelings as the jumping off point for some real and deep processing, people play into the status quo because it feels less threatening.
There's a couple of ideas in social psychology that play into these dynamics. One is cognitive dissonance, when you encounter a belief that contradicts what you know or believe and feel a sense of tension. The greater the dissonance, the stronger the distress. Another is just world theory, the idea that we believe the world is right and just as it is. Whenever you hold a privileged identity and someone brings that up, then you're likely to feel dissonance. Why? Because people often believe the world is fine as it is, so to be presented with information contrary to that, let alone that you benefit from an unjust world, causes a bit of intrapsychic trouble. So what do you do? You could change a belief, add a belief to mitigate the dissonance, or throw something out. Going on the defensive is how a lot of people attempt to reduce their dissonance, and it's why people don't like to hear about 'privilege.'
No one wants to be told that they benefit from an unjust society. This goes double when people grow up poor or as another marginalized identity. However, what we tend to forget is that privilege manifests itself in different ways. As a Black gay person, I don't have racial (read: White) or hetero-privilege. However, as a man I do have cisgender male privilege. So, even if I don't benefit from society in terms of race or sexual orientation, I do in terms of gender, thus leaving me to play the role of oppressor for women and trans* or genderqueer people if I'm not careful. It's hard to find people who *don't* have some sort of privilege.
This defensiveness arises because our idea of the world is being questioned. How we view ourselves is being questioned. As a result, we fight back in whatever way we can. The easy route is to use these intense emotions and fire back at those who 'accuse' us of privilege. We want to say xyz reason why we aren't privileged or try to give examples of how we help marginalized folks. The hard route is backing down and realizing that our defensiveness does nothing but polarize others. It takes a lot more mental energy to process distressful emotions than it does to act them out. One is more deliberate, the other more impulsive.
Another major facet of this defensiveness is seeing the world in either/or terms. We are either good or bad. We are either racist or not racist. I don't think the world is so easily defined. When privilege is brought up, then, we don't look for the gray area. We quickly try to assert why we are good instead of 'bad'. The problem here is that privileged doesn't necessarily mean bad. Trust me that anyone who knows about privilege knows that you played no role in getting it. But when we choose to remain blind to it or ignore that it exists, then we have a problem. It's like White people decrying Affirmative Action because 'Some less qualified Black person got their job' forget that they're more likely to get the job in the first place because of institutional racial bias. Acting from places of privilege perpetuates the problem.
We don't want to be anyone's villain. Most people will readily defend themselves against accusations that they're oppressive in anyway. This is definitely admirable, but I also think it's misguided. If someone calls us out for our privilege or acting within it, it's time to do some reflection. If we're not sure how, we should ask. Privilege is blinding by its very nature, so there's a lot of stuff we can end up missing. Taking the time to understand privilege, how it operates, and how it benefits us contributes to a better world. Being blind to it makes us complicit in a system that is active against people by virtue of their identities, just as the system helps those of us with privilege through the same process.
We need to stop being scared of others calling us racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or anything of the like. When those terms come our way, we need to process and move forward. Even if we think it's wrong, we could at least take the time to consider why our actions might have been perceived that way. This sensitivity may not hinder the machine, which takes more and bigger tools to dismantle, but it can pave the way for use being decent human beings in our everyday lives. Which, you never know, may in turn enact some major change.
But that's the idealist in me.
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