Privilege gets used in a lot of text these days in a manner which suggests, pretty blatantly, that anyone not encumbered by societal handicaps is automatically at a social advantage. But in truth, the only thing that can be said about people who don't have any of those societal handicaps is that they are at an advantage with respect to the disadvantaged. They still don't have any clear social advantage when compared to -- say -- the children of the wealthy and powerful.
Sure, I understand that being white and male means I don't endure a lot of harrassment that black people and women experience because of stupid social practices. But that's not a privilege. It's a basic human right that we're all supposed to enjoy -- at least here in the US. The fact that some people are systematically denied that right is a matter for the courts to address, and indeed the courts have consistently held that such systematic practices are illegal.
Privilege meant "private law" originally. Privileges were legal advantages given to (you knew this was coming) privileged classes of society. Roman patricians enjoyed privileges in terms of where they could live, and what government jobs they could hold, and how much wealth they could accumulate, and whom they could marry.
You can make the argument that any US citizen is privileged because we have a Bill of Rights which specifies the rights of the people, but if we do that then we completely twist the meaning of privilege around since the whole point of privileges in the first place was to favor a small sector of society over the rest.
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Sure, I understand that being white and male means I don't endure a lot of harrassment that black people and women experience because of stupid social practices. But that's not a privilege. It's a basic human right that we're all supposed to enjoy -- at least here in the US. The fact that some people are systematically denied that right is a matter for the courts to address, and indeed the courts have consistently held that such systematic practices are illegal.
Privilege meant "private law" originally. Privileges were legal advantages given to (you knew this was coming) privileged classes of society. Roman patricians enjoyed privileges in terms of where they could live, and what government jobs they could hold, and how much wealth they could accumulate, and whom they could marry.
You can make the argument that any US citizen is privileged because we have a Bill of Rights which specifies the rights of the people, but if we do that then we completely twist the meaning of privilege around since the whole point of privileges in the first place was to favor a small sector of society over the rest.