“BECAUSE OF PRIVILEGE, SOMETIMES WE DON’T SEE THE TRUTH OF WHO PEOPLE REALLY ARE.”
– ADITYA
The thing to understand about privilege is
that no one is saying that white (or straight, or male, etc.) people don’t have problems; it’s just that their problems aren’t caused by be- ing white (or straight, or male, etc.). The idea of privilege is further compli-
cated by intersectionality, different aspects of our identities working together to create a lived experience. Because of intersectionality, one person may experience privilege and ad- vantages based on one aspect of their identity while facing barriers because of another as- pect of their identity, or they might face com- pounded barriers because of multiple aspects of their identity intersecting. For example, a black man who is gay may experience more homophobia (from outside the queer com- munity) as well as racism (from within the queer community) than someone who is white. This is not universally true, which is often one of the struggles when talking about privilege. We can always find an example to counter every argument. My goal here, and in my classroom, is to
listen to and hear the stories of struggles and barriers rather than think of examples to prove them wrong. It’s easy to feel as though we are being blamed if we experience privi- lege. We are not. We are being asked to hear a truth. Here is another example: A friend who uses a wheelchair doesn’t have a lot of money and lives in an apartment in Toron- to. When the elevator in his building broke down, he was trapped in his apartment for several days until it was repaired. Contrast this with another family I know, with sig- nificantly more wealth. They have renovated their home so that the father of the family, who uses a wheelchair, has easy access to the entire house and its amenities. Class makes a big difference to how the challenges of liv- ing in an ableist society impact these two wheelchair users. Put differently, one family’s experience of class privilege made a difficult situation easier. Both families experienced a hardship; however, one family was able to use their privilege to lift some of the barriers.
26 ETFO VOICE | SUMMER 2016
“I REALIZED THAT WHEN WE THINK ABOUT THINGS, LIKE CHARACTERS IN A BOOK, OUR DEFAULT ASSUMPTION IS THAT THEY’RE WHITE. I THINK WE NEED TO MAKE AN EFFORT TO INCLUDE A WIDER DIVERSITY OF PEOPLE TO BROADEN OUR THINKING.” – KAVINA
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