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>I'm a big proponent of the notion that privilege lies on a spectrum, it isn't binary. Agreed, and my genetic combination of healthy, cis, hetero, white, and m
by jachee 9y ago
>I'm a big proponent of the notion that privilege lies on a spectrum, it isn't binary.
Agreed, and my genetic combination of healthy, cis, hetero, white, and male put me on the "more privileged" end of that spectrum.
Recognizing privilege in oneself leads to recognizing it—and the desire to have it at least acknowledged—in others. It also empowers me to leverage that privilege to benefit others who don't share it. As an example, I think Tim Cook does a great job of this at Apple.
- dbaupp 9y agoFraming it as linear/just a spectrum leads to the "oppression Olympics" of people thinking that having white privilege means their, say, poor or abusive upbringing "doesn't count", like the originator of this subthread. However, this is wrong, because having privileges is multidimensional, there's so many axes upon which one can have (varying levels of!) privilege or disadvantage. There's a lot of nuance that often gets lost or forgotten in people's knee-jerk reactions to being told/reminded of their privileges: often one understandably thinks about all the ways in which one still had to struggle, rather than recognising that there were ways in which one didn't.