Monday, June 13, 2011

Recognizing Your Privilege

Owning up to privilege is a difficult but absolutely necessary task for all of us. I know I'm currently struggling to identify all the ways in which my cis privilege manifests (among other forms of privilege). While I'm loath to hand out "cookies," I would like to give props to a few white guys that discuss their privilege in constructive ways.

First of all we have Brother Ali, who has some interesting things to say about race in general, but I would specifically like to draw attention to his interview with Jay Smooth over at Ill Doctrine:



Particularly good bits at 1:12 and 1:48.

Next we have Hugo Schwyzer, whose blog I've been reading more and more. His post on the gender imbalance in age-disparate relationships is particularly interesting. Although it's criticized by some feminists for neglecting the agency of young women, it is in my opinion a thoughtful analysis of the way that male privilege interacts with the power dynamics in May-November romances.

And let's round this out with a bit of humor. I may have mentioned this clip before, but it bears re-watching. Louis CK may sometimes be a raging gender essentialist, and this clip has a reference to rape that I dislike, but he sure seems to understand white male privilege.



All right, readers, it's your turn. Got any good examples of folk usefully discussing their straight, cis, thin, able-bodied, and/or class privilege?

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