And so, when a white woman thinks about privilege, because she doesn't see her own race (since she is the societal "default") she only thinks about the ways men are given advantages over her.

Whereas the Black woman also sees the way that white women and men of all races are given advantages.

And a disabled, queer Black woman... you get the picture.

So "privileged relative to what?" is based entirely on the individual's experience and perspective 🙃

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@Nath @Zagorath

[–] tess@mastodon.social 3 points 9 months ago (6 children)

And this is obviously BAD because it means any time you talk to a straight, able-bodied white man who hasn't actively unpacked all of this about privilege, he's immediately going to think about all the ways he's disadvantaged relative to his own baseline, which is, what? Tall, handsome, rich white men.

When you mention privilege, he feels attacked because he immediately thinks of all the ways in which he lacks it, not the ways he has it.

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@Nath @Zagorath

[–] tess@mastodon.social 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

This dovetails with the "I didn't notice the sexism therefore it didn't happen" problem - he's probably not tuned into the difficulties people lower on the pecking order experience at all.

He has no realistic baseline.

It doesn't excuse his ignorance, but it *does* explain why, from a political standpoint, starting the conversation with privilege *rather than* starting with the challenges faced by other people might be a poor approach, because it engenders defensiveness.

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@Nath @Zagorath

[–] NilaJones@zeroes.ca 2 points 9 months ago

@tess @Nath @Zagorath

Yes. The way I was first taught about privilege, begins with saying that everyone has some ways in which they are privileged in some ways in which they are not

And a little exercise, where everyone in the room thinks about the ways in which they are not privileged. Because those always come to our mind more easily than the ways in which we are privileged!

The ways in which we are, that is the second exercise

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