What Is (Fill-in-the-blank) Privilege?
It was a post by Ageless Possibilities that got me thinking about privilege. What does being privileged mean? Does it mean having a comfortably well-off life? Having doors open easily for you? Not being subjected to discrimination? Sometimes I think we tend to mix up terms, equating being privileged with being well-to-do or affluent. Although I think the real meaning is not being disadvantaged, being part of a group that gets preferential treatment that others do not, simply because you’re automatically assumed to be in a higher echelon of society. Being privileged means one is not subjected to automatic demeaning perceptions, judgments and hardships that others may face daily. Words become buzz words and then after a while some tire of them and begin to sneer and speak of them with ‘air-quotes’. I’ve listened to conversations where people bemoan the fact they are now hard done by because of their so-called ‘white privilege’. They believe they’re not privileged at all b...