PRIVILEGE

* ADDITIONS IN BOLD *

- According to Peggy McIntosh, “the idea that one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do” (Johnson 35).
- One’s access to privilege doesn’t determine their outcome, but it’s an asset that makes it more likely for someone to receive a beneficial result.
- It’s easy to not be aware of privilege (“the luxury of obliviousness”) because awareness requires effort and commitment, and to get the attention of people with lower status without giving it in return is one key aspect of privilege.
- There are two types: unearned entitlements (things of value all people should have, and gives dominant groups an edge) and unearned advantages (unearned entitlements restricted to certain groups).
- Conferred privilege then gives one group power over another.
- Privilege is seen in everyday life with all different groups, whether it is with sports, work, or school. Privilege allows certain people to move through life without being identified as an outsider, and increases one’s chances to have things go their way.
- Individuals get privilege because others see them as belonging to a group that is privileged.
- Capitalism played a major role in the development of white privilege and still plays a major role in its perpetuation (from Johnson’s “Capitalism, Class, and the Matrix of Domination” pg. 41).
- Whites developed the idea of whiteness and defined a privileged social category where they were above everyone else who wasn’t like them (from Johnson’s “Capitalism, Class, and the Matrix of Domination” pg. 46-47).
- The “paradox of privilege” means that since there is more than one set of categories, a person can belong to a privileged category in one set, and an unprivileged category in another. In relation to individuals and systems of privilege and oppression, this paradox tells us that it is not a matter of either/or, but that privilege and oppression happen simultaneously. For example if a man is white and male, then he can feel privileged. But if that same white male is a member of the working class, then he is probably pushed around, so he doesn’t feel privileged. People are always going to be presented with certain barriers that they can't just feel privileged or oppressed. It’s always a combination of both (from Johnson’s “Capitalism, Class, and the Matrix of Domination” pg. 49-52).