POLITICS

Social Privilege

In a recent Facebook discussion about the Christian Cooper/Amy Cooper exchange, about which I have written, I came to a sudden clarity about the fact of majority privilege — a version of which is white privilege — precisely because most of the white people to came to object could not understand that Amy Cooper literally threatened Christian Cooper’s life. Somehow, most African-Americans seemed rather clear on this point and understood that Christian was being threatened in a way that a white man could not have been threatened.

Majority privilege doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with human rights (though that can be a factor), it’s not about anyone feeling guilty or ashamed of what race they were born as, it’s not about taking or failing to take responsibility for your own life, it’s not about affirmative action, it’s not even necessarily about feeling oppression. Majority privilege means that the majority go through life with certain expectations which minorities cannot have. That means minorities have to make adaptations the majority do not have to make. The majority goes through life unaware the world is made for them, while those in the minority have to always adapt to that world. If I have to make adaptations you don’t have to make, you are experiencing a kind of privilege I am not.