Insulation: Talking About Talking About Privilege, Part II
Last Friday, I brought up the fact that we tend to operate on the 'one privilege means all of them' fallacy, which segues into the idea that 'privilege' means that the person has never had any conflict or struggle in their lives ever. Obviously, this is where whoever is being told to 'check their privilege' gets their hackles up-- the human condition involves struggle, and our psychology and biology means we often give our personal problems greater prominence in our minds.
Implicit in the original assumption, is, as well, the idea that 'privilege' means the world actively bends over backwards for someone. Again, I'm looking at this through the lens of writing about those who are not like us-- and this perception of 'privilege' means receiving active special treatment tends to fuel characters who are from higher up the privilege food chain than the author having everything done for them, or being outrageously, unfairly fawned over. At the same time, people writing from a position of relative privilege may incorrectly believe their experience represents the norm for characters of other backgrounds.
I think it's helpful for us writers to think about privilege as insulation: an absence of additional concerns, annoyances, and barriers to success that others might face. For example, someone who doesn't use mobility devices like a wheelchair spends zero percent of their time figuring out accessible routes to do errands, get to work, or visit friends; they don't have to check ahead of time to see if the building they're going is accessible; they don't have to figure out what to do when a location they need to get to isn't wheelchair-friendly. That's quite a bit of time and planning effort that the non-wheelchair user can spend doing something else. Or it could be more subtle and toxic-- someone of the dominant ethnic group who gets a new job knows their coworkers will assume they got the job due to their own competence, and won't assume they're a less-qualified 'affirmative action hire' because of their race or ethnicity. The employee's competence is assumed and all they have to do is not screw it up, rather than being assumed incompetent and having to prove exceptional competence.
If you frame the issue as 'what might a character not have to worry about that others do?', it's a lot easier to step away from the idea that their life is problem free, and place them in the context of their society.
Implicit in the original assumption, is, as well, the idea that 'privilege' means the world actively bends over backwards for someone. Again, I'm looking at this through the lens of writing about those who are not like us-- and this perception of 'privilege' means receiving active special treatment tends to fuel characters who are from higher up the privilege food chain than the author having everything done for them, or being outrageously, unfairly fawned over. At the same time, people writing from a position of relative privilege may incorrectly believe their experience represents the norm for characters of other backgrounds.
I think it's helpful for us writers to think about privilege as insulation: an absence of additional concerns, annoyances, and barriers to success that others might face. For example, someone who doesn't use mobility devices like a wheelchair spends zero percent of their time figuring out accessible routes to do errands, get to work, or visit friends; they don't have to check ahead of time to see if the building they're going is accessible; they don't have to figure out what to do when a location they need to get to isn't wheelchair-friendly. That's quite a bit of time and planning effort that the non-wheelchair user can spend doing something else. Or it could be more subtle and toxic-- someone of the dominant ethnic group who gets a new job knows their coworkers will assume they got the job due to their own competence, and won't assume they're a less-qualified 'affirmative action hire' because of their race or ethnicity. The employee's competence is assumed and all they have to do is not screw it up, rather than being assumed incompetent and having to prove exceptional competence.
If you frame the issue as 'what might a character not have to worry about that others do?', it's a lot easier to step away from the idea that their life is problem free, and place them in the context of their society.
No comments have been added yet.
