Privilege is like having a starting line placed ahead of others. You still need to do the work to win the race, but you get a head start. Image by Thomas Wolter from Pixabay.

What “Privilege” Actually Means

Making sense of a much-hated word.

“Privilege.”

Few words elicit as many eye rolls like this one. It’s an infamous buzzword in the social justice lexicon. It also elicits hand-wringing about an overly PC culture.

When I first heard the word “privilege,” I was in the first-year university and knew next to nothing about social justice. I heard this word parroted by self-proclaimed feminists, and when it was aimed at me (e.g. “check your privilege”), I, like plenty of others, bristled at its connotations.

What, me? Privileged?! Of course not! I work hard for my success! And I’m not racist or anything!

The word “privilege” makes people feel attacked as if they don’t deserve their accomplishments. For example, you may have worked hard to graduate from post-secondary education. So how is having a degree unearned “privilege”?

Well, it’s a lot more nuanced than that. Most of us have some sort of privilege, and the same privilege can mean different things to different individuals.

So let’s set aside our preconceived notions of what privilege is for a bit and take a deeper look.

Checking My Privilege

Here are some things that make me somewhat oppressed in modern Western society:

1. I am female.
2. I am female but I don’t look feminine.
3. I am a person of color.
4. I am queer.
5. I have been diagnosed with a mental illness.
6. My parents are immigrants.

There are lots of queer, female people of color who are marginalized, vulnerable, and discriminated against in today’s Western society.

Yet, I would still call myself a highly privileged person.

Because, while I have those “oppressive” attributes, I also have these privileges:

1. I live in a generally liberal and tolerant city.
2. I don’t have student debt.
3. I grew up financially well-off, with extracurricular activities to keep me engaged and academic help when I struggled.
4. My parents are not divorced.
5. I speak English. Moreover, I speak English without a “foreign” accent. Even more, my parents also happen to speak English.
6. I have access to universal healthcare.
7. I have a computer and internet access, and my free speech is protected.
8. I don’t have to provide for anyone; I don’t have kids and my parents do not require my support.

So how are these things privileges? And just how impactful are they?

Being fortunate enough to live in a liberal area grants me safety and equity that many folks in my demographic don’t have.

This is a big one. Despite being a queer, female-bodied person of color, I live in a place wherein general, these things don’t matter. In fact, I often find these attributes assets more than hindrances because many employers, organizations, and institutions in my immediate community are actively trying to diversify themselves.

Privilege simply means there were certain circumstances that put you a step ahead of the less privileged, circumstances you didn’t necessarily deserve but circumstances you had no control over.

We can use privilege to build more inclusive and diverse workplaces, organizations, and institutions. Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash.

Not having to worry about money frees up immense time, space, and mental energy to focus on other things.

Money is a huge, and I mean HUUUUUGE leg up.

Many of the things I do today wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t have money. If my parents couldn’t afford piano lessons for me when I was growing up, I wouldn’t have been able to put my music diploma on my resume, earn money through my music skills, and express myself in a healthy way. Therefore, being able to afford music lessons put me ahead in life.

Not worrying about university tuition meant I could focus on school, get good grades, and engage in extracurriculars, all of which also gave me a head start to adult life.

Not having any dependents mean I can pursue practically anything I want. I don’t have to put off education to support someone.

In fact, without a bedrock of savings, I wouldn’t be sitting here on a weekday afternoon writing this article with no promise of payment.

Privilege doesn’t mean you don’t deserve your success. It simply means you had a little “free” help on the way.

Let me make this clear: having privilege doesn’t mean you don’t deserve your success and accomplishments. Yes, my privileges allowed me greater ease in accomplishing the things I did, but I’m still proud of them. I’m still proud of myself for coming out, completing a degree, and writing this piece.

Privilege simply means there were certain circumstances that put you a step ahead of the less privileged, circumstances you didn’t necessarily deserve but circumstances you had no control over.

The same privilege can mean very different things for different people.

Privileges aren’t equal. I am a female, queer person of color, and yet I am a lot more privileged than many, many straight white males out there simply because of the money aspect. We tend to talk a lot about race, sex, and gender these days — which is absolutely important — but we often forget about the simple, old-fashioned truth that money gets you things.

So what should privileged people do?

So you admit it: you have the privilege. Now what? What are your responsibilities?

I’m still trying to figure this out, but I’ve come up with a few ideas. People with privilege can:

• Use their privilege to help amplify marginalized voices. For example, a White gallery curator can use their resources to help emerging artists of colour get their voices heard.
• Start conversations with other privileged people to spread awareness. A man who identifies as a feminist can chat with his guy friends about why he identifies that way.
• De-centre their narrative. Stop assuming that your life story is the norm. Don’t assume other people go home to their families for Thanksgiving or that all your colleagues can afford weekly Friday drinks.
• When possible, give space to less privileged people and let them speak. If you’re having a dinner conversation about race relations in the U.S., perhaps the one Black person in the room should have listened to more.

For example, I live in British Columbia. Much of the land in B.C. has never been officially ceded, surrendered, or given over to the Canadian state by Aboriginal nations. Yet, Indigenous people here continue to suffer immense social injustice.

One thing many British Columbians do today is habitually acknowledging the traditional, ancestral territories we occupy. We do this by acknowledging the nations whose lands we’re on during sporting events, conferences, protests, and more. This is a humble attempt to re-center Indigenous history as often as possible.

I try to do my part by including a land acknowledgment whenever possible, especially on international platforms like Medium because Indigenous issues in Canada are still largely unknown outside the country. (To learn more about this social issue, please read more about it here).

Hi! Thanks for reading :) My name is Charmaine and I write about mental health, identity, culture, nature, music, and more. Please follow me to read more stories like this one. I currently reside and write upon the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Tseil-Watuth, and Squamish peoples.