Privilege, sexism, ageism, racism, ism-ism
I've been thinking about empowerment and privilege.
About a year ago, I was involved in a thread that I thought was about how to maintain a healthy body weight, and taking into account the mind-body connection and to some extent the society-mind-body connection. I'm very interested in health and thought I had some credibility on the subject as someone who has been an athlete and never had a BMI over 23 in my life.
I was, in effect, run out of town on a rail, and the data I presented from peer-reviewed journals discounted because I apparently have privilege. Or rather, I was perceived to have privilege that the thread owner did not. This was very frustrating at the time, and to some degree still is.
It seemed that the assumption by those without the imputed privilege, was that anyone with the privilege/advantage would try to reinforce a world view that made those without a relative victim.
I thought that sucked. How can someone who is successful at something help others up, if success is used as a metric to disqualify that person's insights?
Certainly, there are successful (privileged) people who don't understand how or why they are so. Ted Williams could bat .400, but wasn't good at teaching batting because he was just a "natural." Certainly some privileged people work hard to maintain their status and may not be able to tease out how much of their success is due to virtue and how much is due to lucky genes and upbringing. But, it seems fearful, close minded and in fact wrong to assume categorically that all people who have a privilege have it undeservedly.
Talking cogently about this across the privilege dividing line is a tricky dynamic. In spite of the assertive rhetoric of some of the writers who would humble the privileged, I see a lot of dis-empowerment in the nub of the arguments. Rather than focusing on the factors which tend to elevate anyone (cognitive and behavioral changes), they emphasize the factors that no one can take credit for (genes and parents)...or be blamed for.
This seems like an attempt to bolster self esteem by upending the game, without taking into account the reason for the game in the first place. It's understandable they want to change a game where they feel at a disadvantage. However, it may be denial, folly or self destructive if the game is meaningful (e.g., a healthy body, wealth attainment, a safe and sane lifestyle or somesuch).
I guess what I instinctively fall back to is a belief that we are all responsible for our own selves. Who else can be? Who else would we trust to be?
Maybe I find comfort in such a view because privilege has made the difference in it working for me.
Ugh. You see? This is an infinite regress.
Ok, so here's the brass tacks. On the margin, if we deny our ability to better ourselves, we miss opportunities to do so. If we embrace our ability to better ourselves, we may not get equal results to others for equal work, but we are likely to get better results than if we had not strove at all. That personal empowerment will probably have a positive effect on self esteem as well. Whew.
About a year ago, I was involved in a thread that I thought was about how to maintain a healthy body weight, and taking into account the mind-body connection and to some extent the society-mind-body connection. I'm very interested in health and thought I had some credibility on the subject as someone who has been an athlete and never had a BMI over 23 in my life.
I was, in effect, run out of town on a rail, and the data I presented from peer-reviewed journals discounted because I apparently have privilege. Or rather, I was perceived to have privilege that the thread owner did not. This was very frustrating at the time, and to some degree still is.
It seemed that the assumption by those without the imputed privilege, was that anyone with the privilege/advantage would try to reinforce a world view that made those without a relative victim.
I thought that sucked. How can someone who is successful at something help others up, if success is used as a metric to disqualify that person's insights?
Certainly, there are successful (privileged) people who don't understand how or why they are so. Ted Williams could bat .400, but wasn't good at teaching batting because he was just a "natural." Certainly some privileged people work hard to maintain their status and may not be able to tease out how much of their success is due to virtue and how much is due to lucky genes and upbringing. But, it seems fearful, close minded and in fact wrong to assume categorically that all people who have a privilege have it undeservedly.
Talking cogently about this across the privilege dividing line is a tricky dynamic. In spite of the assertive rhetoric of some of the writers who would humble the privileged, I see a lot of dis-empowerment in the nub of the arguments. Rather than focusing on the factors which tend to elevate anyone (cognitive and behavioral changes), they emphasize the factors that no one can take credit for (genes and parents)...or be blamed for.
This seems like an attempt to bolster self esteem by upending the game, without taking into account the reason for the game in the first place. It's understandable they want to change a game where they feel at a disadvantage. However, it may be denial, folly or self destructive if the game is meaningful (e.g., a healthy body, wealth attainment, a safe and sane lifestyle or somesuch).
I guess what I instinctively fall back to is a belief that we are all responsible for our own selves. Who else can be? Who else would we trust to be?
Maybe I find comfort in such a view because privilege has made the difference in it working for me.
Ugh. You see? This is an infinite regress.
Ok, so here's the brass tacks. On the margin, if we deny our ability to better ourselves, we miss opportunities to do so. If we embrace our ability to better ourselves, we may not get equal results to others for equal work, but we are likely to get better results than if we had not strove at all. That personal empowerment will probably have a positive effect on self esteem as well. Whew.