Privilege?
To have privilege means
1) to belong to a group perceived to hold the majority of power. This applies not just to the groups based on race but on those based on gender, creed, religion, sexuality, gender expression and other categories people are judged by other than merit.
2) to have positive assumptions made about you based on your membership in the group in power.
We cannot change the fact that people continue to judge others based on these assumptions. We can do our best not to make these assumptions about others. We can judge based on an individual's merit or lack thereof. We can also encourage others to do the same.
3) to have members of other groups go out of their way to be inoffensive to you because they perceive you as belonging to the group in power.
No one should have to do that.
I realize that in some cases offending a member of the group in power may cost the speaker's life and/or livelihood, and in those cases we should weigh the decision to speak up very carefully. In general, however, I advocate honesty. As members of a group not in power we have to speak up, to get active, to make ourselves heard. As members of a group in power, we need to listen and to speak for those who have no voice.
4) to have, as a group on average,a better position at start in terms of finances, education, health care, etc than what other groups have on average.
On average, I cannot deny that the above privileges exist. However, the average does not define the individual. Making blanket statements about a group based on an average seems to spawn more prejudice than it fights. Think about this.
Statements of averages can lead to overcompensation.
To overcompensate means to make the assumption that because a group has, on average, lived without the privileges that the group in power, on average, takes for granted, that all members of the other groups are incapable of rising to the same heights as any member of the groups in power without a lot of extra help. who cannot see the prejudice in that?
Prejudice wears many faces, my friends. We do not need to judge based on averages, but on individuals.
Having said that, I can see no other way to end privilege save to level the playing field.
So, allow me to ask--do we truly believe that we need to level the playing field for this game we call life? Some say that the lower you start out the more opportunities you have to rise. I still need to ponder that statement.
However, for the sake of argument, let us say that we do need to start everyone out on equal footing. (Like in a basic board game, where everyone starts out in the same square with the same stuff). How could we do that, other than by making privileges into rights?
I'd like to see some opinions here about into which category each concept should fall:
Education--a right or a privilege? Why?
Health care?
Marriage?
Reproduction?
Employment?
Protection under the law?
Food?
Clothing?
Shelter?
Come on, folks. Pick at least one of these and give me a rant back. Feel free to take on of these topics and ponder about it in your own LJ.
--Jack
1) to belong to a group perceived to hold the majority of power. This applies not just to the groups based on race but on those based on gender, creed, religion, sexuality, gender expression and other categories people are judged by other than merit.
2) to have positive assumptions made about you based on your membership in the group in power.
We cannot change the fact that people continue to judge others based on these assumptions. We can do our best not to make these assumptions about others. We can judge based on an individual's merit or lack thereof. We can also encourage others to do the same.
3) to have members of other groups go out of their way to be inoffensive to you because they perceive you as belonging to the group in power.
No one should have to do that.
I realize that in some cases offending a member of the group in power may cost the speaker's life and/or livelihood, and in those cases we should weigh the decision to speak up very carefully. In general, however, I advocate honesty. As members of a group not in power we have to speak up, to get active, to make ourselves heard. As members of a group in power, we need to listen and to speak for those who have no voice.
4) to have, as a group on average,a better position at start in terms of finances, education, health care, etc than what other groups have on average.
On average, I cannot deny that the above privileges exist. However, the average does not define the individual. Making blanket statements about a group based on an average seems to spawn more prejudice than it fights. Think about this.
Statements of averages can lead to overcompensation.
To overcompensate means to make the assumption that because a group has, on average, lived without the privileges that the group in power, on average, takes for granted, that all members of the other groups are incapable of rising to the same heights as any member of the groups in power without a lot of extra help. who cannot see the prejudice in that?
Prejudice wears many faces, my friends. We do not need to judge based on averages, but on individuals.
Having said that, I can see no other way to end privilege save to level the playing field.
So, allow me to ask--do we truly believe that we need to level the playing field for this game we call life? Some say that the lower you start out the more opportunities you have to rise. I still need to ponder that statement.
However, for the sake of argument, let us say that we do need to start everyone out on equal footing. (Like in a basic board game, where everyone starts out in the same square with the same stuff). How could we do that, other than by making privileges into rights?
I'd like to see some opinions here about into which category each concept should fall:
Education--a right or a privilege? Why?
Health care?
Marriage?
Reproduction?
Employment?
Protection under the law?
Food?
Clothing?
Shelter?
Come on, folks. Pick at least one of these and give me a rant back. Feel free to take on of these topics and ponder about it in your own LJ.
--Jack