I am so privileged and chances are, so are you
- emmatsoi
- Jul 10, 2017
- 3 min read
(From the limited perspective of a yellow-skinned woman in Hong Kong.)
Where I live, I will never feel as anxious, intimidated or non-existent on public transport as females who are of darker skin tones than me, nor will I get the same amount and intensity of staring and glaring when I let out a laugh in those same circumstances. Yet I will never reach the same bursting levels of confidence and comfort when taking up space on public transport as yellow-skinned males do, in addition to the fact that every time I board a train or a bus, I have to think twice about whether my position of standing and choreography of moving from the entrance and towards the exit is strategic enough to not be sexually harassed, whether unintentionally or intentionally.
Such are my true thoughts on the paradox of privilege and entitlement and how it creeps into our lives daily, often unnoticed. I see it as a paradox because it recently dawned on me that the number of times you consider yourself privileged is the exact number of times you are, in fact, the less privileged. Interestingly and harrowingly enough, a yellow-skinned male is more privileged than me, a yellow-skinned female, but a yellow-skinned straight male is more privileged than a yellow-skinned gay male, or a yellow-skinned cis-gender male is more privileged than a yellow-skinned transgender male, but a yellow-skinned cis-gender healthy male is more privileged than a yellow-skinned cis-gender male with congenital health conditions, but a rich yellow-skinned cis-gender healthy male is more privileged than a poor yellow-skinned cis-gender healthy male. The hierarchy of privilege is often layered until what seems like exhaustion, but lest we forget the white-skinned populations in our communities, which make rich yellow-skinned cis-gender healthy males perhaps just not quite the most privileged demographic yet.
Here is more bite-sized material for those who are lost or interested.
What is privilege?
On white privilege:
(The source is @feministastic on Instagram. They have a pretty dope feed!)
Privilege will always exist because there are political, socio-economic, and cultural systems of oppression in our societies. It is an inevitable result that those who belong to any of the classifications associated with entitlement (ie. white-skinned, able-bodied, high socio-economic standing, heterosexual, cis-gendered, Christian, male etc) will have a certain amount of privilege, while those who belong to more classifications will have proportionately more privilege.
But since we are born into it without choice or knowledge, privilege is not a sin, nor is it something we can escape from or control. The closest we can do to narrow the disparity of equalities, as woke individuals or simply well-meaning people who aspire to thrive in a better world, is to be aware of the privileges we are bathed in from birth. Another phrase often used to convey the same meaning is "to check one's privileges". This suggests that not only are we in the know, but that we are also constantly cautious of the ways in which we speak about systemic oppression, truthful in stating our limitations in understanding those who are suffering, and eager always to lend an ear to those who speak from classifications below ours.
An essay titled "Whose privilege is showing? Probably mine. But don't ask me to check anyone else" written by Susanna Schrobsdorff in the May 15, 2017 issue of TIME Magazine illustrated the same views with a sardonic touch of humour and realism. (You can read it here: http://time.com/4766621/whose-privilege-is-showing/!) To me, the most thought-provoking line was undoubtedly "Questions [from online quizzes that test how privileged you are and in what ways] range from "I never had to 'come out'" to "I have had an unpaid internship" and "I have never been shamed for my body type."" This line resonated in me, for I found my supposedly woke self oblivious to the privileges that were carrying me on their backs day by day, lightening the burdens of my journey on this earth without me noticing.
That's all for today folks! Happy Monday!
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