Obliviousness is the Most Destructive Privilege of All
Not knowing others’ experiences — or recognizing our own lenses — intensifies division and makes achieving justice harder
At a time of increasing attention to issues of inequality, much has been written lately about discrimination and its flipside, unearned privilege.
While some of the discussion involves whether or not various types of privilege (such as white privilege) even exist, at other times, the debate is more about which type of privilege is the bigger problem to which we should attend?
Is it white privilege, male privilege, class privilege for the wealthy, or some other kind that does the most damage, or about which we should be most concerned?
I suppose one could make an argument for any of these, but seriously?
Fact is, systems of inequality, which involve advantages and disadvantages as two sides of the same coin, are all harmful to the cause of a fair and just society. There is no practical point in ranking them in order of awfulness, even were it possible to do so objectively.
Rather than engaging in discussions about degrees of pain and unearned advantage, I find that the most productive way to engage privilege is to examine the…
