The Problem of Priviledge

When looking at the concept of privilege, the most significant aspect of it, in my opinion, is it’s multidimensionality. On the surface level, privilege as seen as a set of lucky circumstances which favor one individual over another. Take it a step deeper, and privilege is revealed to be a result of systematic favor, which aims to elevate certain groups over others. However, I would take this notion even further and argue that privilege is a result of systematic favor which aims to uplift others to a level of comfortable complacency that keeps them blinded to how the power structure is being used to exploit them and others. I make this argument from the viewpoint of understanding how intersectionality interacts with privilege, as well as the consequences of living in a society that thrives when people are unaware of intersectionality and privilege.

To support this claim, I will be comparing three reading that we’ve done this semester which touch on these issues. The first is in regard to a book chapter on the Disability Rights Movement. The second, “Explaining White Privilege to Broke White Person”, is an article that looks into the complex function of privilege within society. The third reading is another article that aims to redefine the black and white binary by looking at the model minority myth and its historical impact on Asian-American students.

When reading “The Disability Right Movement” chapter in Willie V. Bryan’s book, Struggle for Freedom, I was immediately surprised by my complete lack of knowledge that a disability rights movement had even occurred. Before this movement, having taken place only a mere 50 years ago, persons with disabilities weren’t even considered a “class” of people. It wasn’t until the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, almost 10 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that discrimination on the basis of disability was somewhat prohibited (Bryan, 2006). I’ve always taken pride in my agency to educate myself on human rights history. The fact that I was completely ignorant to the struggles of the disability rights movement definitely spoke to the larger structures at play making sure that particular part of American history was erased from common core education. However, the fact that I never felt the need to look into it, as I have other issues that were also left out of most common core curriculum, spoke to an even more disturbing reality- my complacency towards an issue that I hadn’t previously perceived my identity intersecting with.

One of the most interesting arguments in Bryan’s writing, which is included in the same paragraph that he introduces the Rehabilitation Act, reads:

“It is ironic that with regard to human rights, their disabilities were secondary to their cultural and/or gender identity, but with regard to their rights as citizens, their disabilities were primary, overshadowing gender and/or cultural identity” (Bryan, 2006).

This statement does some critical work in illustrating how disability interacted with both marginalized and privileged communities. It also spoke to the hierarchical nature of intersectionality and how it can be used to further divide all who are oppressed and/or exploited by the power structure.

In the article, “Explaining White Privilege to Broke White Person”, the idea that white people are born with a “knapsack” of unearned privileges is both valid and understandable (Gina Corcoran, 2014) . However, the aspect of the article talking about how privilege intersects with intersectionality is significant in showing how privilege can be used to make any group complacent. Towards the end of her article, Corcoran lays out the different intersections of privilege, showing how class, citizenship, sexual orientation, and ability are all factors that afford some people unearned opportunities that others may not have. That being said, no one is immune to denying which parts of their identity are privileged and trying to participate in the “struggle Olympics”- not even minorities. It is our responsibility, just as it is everyone else’s, to check our privilege. I have able-bodied and cisgender privilege, which for a long time created a comfortability in those areas that kept me from advocating for those issues. Often times, as marginalized minorities, it’s easy not to see how we too, are a tool in the power structure.

The reality that marginalized groups are often elevated by other aspects of their identity is supported in Jean Yonemura Wing’s article, “Beyond Black and White: The Model Minority Myth and the Invisibility of Asian American Students.” According to this article, widespread emergence of the ‘‘success literature’’ in the 1960s’ brought forth a sudden and radical change around how Asian-Americans, and specifically Japanese Americans, were viewed in American society. The group that was previously dehumanized to the point of being held in concentration camps, came to be recognized as the most elite minority, according to several articles published during that time- including one by the New York Times (Wing, 459). The reason for this new label was most attributed to academic success and respectable/obedient citizenship displayed by many Asian-Americans. Although the article makes great arguments for the oppressive limitations that the model minority model presents, I believe it misses one key point on the deeper purpose of the Model Minority Model. This point is that the effectiveness of the Model Minority Model comes from its internalization, which makes the privilege of its affects invisible, as well as it’s reinforcement of social hierarchies.

At the end of the day, few people lack qualities that would make them a “model minority” or a model citizen in a capitalist, patriarchal society. Poor white people, queer Latinx people, straight women with disabilities, rich black people, and a thousand other mix of identities all have one thing in common- some aspects of their identity are privileged and some are marginalized. The goal of the power structure is to keep us from realizing that whatever privileges we do have are privileges because of a society that has created an unachievable definition of normality- defined by the perfect, white cis male CEO. And even he is a slave to the system of capitalism that forces him to reckon with the exploitation of his workers in order not to be exploited himself by the power structure. The unity that is necessary to dismantle systems of power can, unfortunately, only be accomplished once this reality is realized.

Works Cited

1. Crosley-Corcoran, G. (n.d.). Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person... Retrieved from http://occupywallstreet.net/story/explaining-white-privilege-broke-white-person.

2. Wing, J. Y. (2007). Beyond Black and White: The Model Minority Myth and the Invisibility of Asian American Students. The Urban Review, 39(4), 455–487. doi: 10.1007/s11256-007-0058-6

3. Bryan, W. V. (2006). In Search of Freedom: How Persons with Disabilities Have Been Disenfranchised From the Mainstream of American Society and How the Search for Freedom Continues. Charles C. Thomas.