Privilege (I)

Recently I participated in a workshop about diversity and inclusion with the team of Futureberry and my main reflections and challenges were around the concept of Privilege.

I realized that it is not enough being empathic (to put yourself in another person’s situation) in order to understand and be engaged towards inclusiveness.

It is also necessary, and quite important, to recognize, understand and visualize in ourselves what it means to have privilege in our day-to-day life, in our routine, in our way to enjoy and do things.

Without that understanding, that visualization, the empathy towards the others is not complete, it would still be missing a piece of the puzzle to make it more solid, more comprehensive.

It is true that I have been aware my whole life of some of my own privileges, but this time I got confronted even further and had to dig deeper into the topic of privilege because I want to know more, to be more alert and sensible about it.

I’ll write more about it in other entries, for this time just to refer to couple of articles that are inspiring me to keep learning about privilege:

The first one is called “You’re Not a Bad Person: Facing Privilege Can Be Liberating” by Miki Kashtan.

Couple of lines included in her article:

"We cannot run away from having privilege once we have it. The only choice I believe we have is how we engage with the privilege that we have. I have so far identified four negative ways of engaging with privilege, and four positive ways of engaging with privilege"

The Negative path is: Denial/Invisibility; Guilt/Shame; Defensiveness; Entitlement.

The Positive path: Owning the privilege; Learning about Privilege; Opening to receive feedback; Tewarding for the benefit of all

The second article is Privilege 101: A Quick and Dirty Guide by Sian Ferguson

Couple of lines included in her article:

“Privilege is the other side of oppression.

It’s often easier to notice oppression than privilege.

It’s definitely easier to notice the oppression you personally experience than the privileges you experience since being mistreated is likely to leave a bigger impression on you than being treated fairly.”

“You can be privileged and still have a difficult life. Privilege doesn’t mean that your life is easy, but rather that it’s easier than others.”

Privilege is a set of unearned benefits given to people who fit into a specific social group