Privilege
Privilege. It’s a loaded word these days, and means different things to different people.
So, let’s start by defining privilege.
There is the privilege of wealth.
You may have worked for it or inherited it, yet wealth gives its owner privilege. It means freedom of choice in how you spend it and freedom of fear from not having it.
There is the privilege of being well educated.
It gives you more choice in jobs and the opportunity to earn more money than the person who has less education than you.
There’s also the privilege of gender.
If you are a man you have more power and choice than a woman. You are less likely to be raped or killed by your partner. More job opportunities come your way. It’s not fair and it just is.
Lastly, there is the privilege of skin colour.
Chances are if you are white you don’t even think about it.
Just as fish don’t know water, whites don’t know colour or the privilege that goes with it.
There is only one race and it is the human race. We just happen to come in a variety of skin tones and somewhere along the way old white men decided that white was right and the rest of the world needed to be under white control.
In Canada, this played out by the introduction of blankets contaminated with smallpox, a bounty on the heads of native people and of course the curse of the residential schools.
It continues today with the myths of the lazy Indian and all the disparaging words used to describe them. Right now in Vancouver, the Vancouver City Police have been accused of the racial profiling of native people and the statistics seem to support the accusations.
In Quebec they are holding an inquiry into the treatment of aboriginal people in the health care system. The stories being told are appalling. As were the stories told at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
There’re over 5100 missing and murdered aboriginal women. And little is being done about it. Imagine if it was that many white women.
If you are white, it’s unlikely any of this stuff has happened to you and it is not likely to happen. Your skin colour is your pass to better treatment and more respect than that offered to native people. You/we have done nothing to deserve this. And it is our jobs to pay attention.
Pay attention when the clerk ignores the person who is not white in favour of you. Pay attention when you see people being harassed. If the situation is really scary call the police, take discreet pictures on your phone and pass them on to the police. Most of all stand up and speak out.
Nothing is going to change if we, as whites, don’t insist on it. It is not the loss of privilege, it is the opportunity to expand the playing field. It’s time to get out of our fish bowl and see the world as it is. We need to make better decisons.
Although the examples used have focused on the Aboriginal people, there is equal abuse being heaped on Muslims, Jews and people of any other colour than white.
If you’d like to have a discussion about this and how to make other decisions, give me a call or send an email.