One can be poorer than dirt and a sixth grade dropout and still enjoy white privilege. Because privilege is about the instant assumptions people make about you – your worth, your honesty, your intelligence – based on color of skin. Nor is privilege defined only by race. Some years back, my wife took the car back to a certain national tire shop, because one of the tires we’d just bought there had developed a bulge. The guy at the counter said the bulge was her fault. He refused to put the car up on the rack, refused to call his manager. He dismissed her, curtly and rudely. So I go up there with her to have it out with this guy. Next thing I know, we’re dealing with the manager, he’s got the car up on the rack and is apologizing for some “rare defect,” in the tire, which he will replace while we wait. What I had experienced was male privilege, the ability to be taken seriously at an auto shop because of my gender. Now, to unwittingly benefit from misogyny does not make one a misogynist. But to pretend said benefit did not exist would be profoundly boorish.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:20:36 +0000
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