PSA: Stand Up to Privilege-ism

4/11/2017

JESSIE FERNANDEZ

Vol 11, Issue 7

Do you think others are too easily offended but feel offended yourself when you are called out for overt or casual discrimination?

You may be experiencing privilege-ism. Privilege-ism is when someone hurts, humiliates, intimidates, offends or treats you less favourably based on or because of your privilege.

Privilege is often intersectional. This means that if you are privileged, for example, because you are white, you may also experience the privilege of being wealthy. The intersectionality of privilege means you may be at an increased risk of experiencing privilege-ism, or discrimination based on your privilege.

When people tell you to stop discriminating against others more disadvantaged than you, you should not listen to them. If you see someone else being attacked for their privilege, you should stand up for them and support them.

Remind the perpetrator of their privilege bias and assist them to realise that not all privileged persons are the same. If the perpetrator is someone you know, consider sending them short, to-the-point articles about privileged people who have contributed something to the community.

You may even want to share your own lived experience, but do not feel pressured to do so. Remember, you do not owe perpetrators of privilege-ism any more emotional labour than you have already spent trying to get through life as an oppressed privileged person.

If narrative tactics fail to enliven empathy in the privilege-ist you are trying to convince, you may wish to share some statistics or reputable studies about the growing rates of privilege-ism and its impacts on individuals and the wider community. For some, numbers speak louder than words.

Together, we can stamp out privilege-ism and maintain the status quo of our wonderful, homogenous, white-supremacist-patriarchal-heteronormative-capitalist-imperialist society.

Jessie Fernandez is a final year student who is almost certainly convinced that the De Minimis staff are trolling the comments to increase traffic, but was nevertheless inspired by the irony of said comments.

#notallprivileged #notallmen #notallwhitepeople #notallcisgendered #notallcops #notallceos #notallmlsstudents #notallprivateschoolstudents #notalltrumps

For context (more specifically the comment sections)

The rest of this issue

Artwork by first-year JD student Lily Hart

28 Comments

All privilege is white

4/10/2017 04:33:33 am

Privilege-ism presupposes that privilege exists.

To date nobody has been able to prove that it does, because it remains unfalsifiable voodoo magic.

Henry HL

4/11/2017 12:29:36 am

Wait.........

Are you actually claiming no one has ever demonstrated that being white, rich, straight etc is correlated with greater success with lower effort and/or more respect and acceptance given to you?

4/11/2017 12:45:47 am

http://letmegooglethat.com/?q=Proof+that+privilege+exists

As ice cream sales increase, the rate of drowning deaths increases sharply. Therefore, ice cream consumption causes drowning.

4/11/2017 04:02:49 am

Are you actually claiming that correlation implies causation?

Are you claiming privilege is the cause of these things?

Or are you claiming privilege is simply a name for these things?

If its the latter, you still haven't identified what caused it. If its the latter, is there anything stopping me for inventing a term like 'black privilege' to encompass anything I would like to arbitrarily fall under that label?

I Googled it so you don't have to

4/11/2017 04:10:22 am

Dear Ice Cream,

"privilege doesn’t go both ways. Female privilege does not exist because women don’t have institutional power. Similarly, black privilege, trans privilege, and poor privilege don’t exist because those groups do not have institutional power."

http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/09/what-is-privilege/

Everyday patriachy

4/11/2017 04:47:00 am

So are you saying privilege is the cause of, the result of, or is a name for, institutional power?

Specifically in relation to 'black privilege', what if we were talking about, say, Zimbabwe, where the government has an official policy of black nationalism?

Can you define the parameters of institutional power so as to determine who does and does not have it and in what contexts and circumstances it might be present?

I'm sorry but your blog post is a little hazy on the details

#notallcountries

4/11/2017 05:46:47 am

I would say that privilege is coloured by, or informed by institutional power. Causes of institutional power? A historical inquiry.

The context in which our discussion is taking place is Australia, but this context is similar to America, the UK… so we can use arguments made in those contexts to shed light on Australian society too.

Or we can look broadly at the globe, at imperialism, colonialism, global patriarchy etc if you like. I’d say the parameters of this discussion would either be Australia, ‘the Western world’ or broadly, the globe as a whole. Of course if you want to look domestically at countries elsewhere with very different social, political, demographic etc makeups you could but this thread looks to me like a case study on the Australian context.

Some circumstances of institutional power? You mean like in the workplace, on the street, in schools?

4/12/2017 06:24:07 am

"Or are you claiming privilege is simply a name for these things?

If its the latter, you still haven't identified what caused it. If its the latter, is there anything stopping me for inventing a term like 'black privilege' to encompass anything I would like to arbitrarily fall under that label?"

This is just a problem with how all language works dude. All words have arbitrary boundaries that's just how the process of naming things works.

Sukie Ridgemont

4/11/2017 01:21:34 am

This is true (a fact). It is extremely difficult to prove that privilege is an actual phenomenon: this is because everyone experiences hardship and, as we all know, hardship immediately eradicates any & all aspects of privilege from your life (a very bad or sick thing!!). For example, I was abused from the age of 4, which meant that i didn't get to benefit from my postcode or skin colour at all!! I mean, no one in my family has ever even BEEN to university before, so i resent having all these brown & vagina-having people constantly asking me to "check my privilege" and to think before I speak. I'm entitled to all my opinions, because I've been through things, unlike them, and I won't be challenged by idiot snowflakes who think things like "power" and "privilege" are real. I mean, how did these guys even get into Melbourne Law School?

Daryl Van Horne

4/11/2017 03:57:36 am

Not an argument. You still haven't offered proof that privilege, white or otherwise, exists. I'm not even sure you have defined its parameters.

John

4/29/2017 02:46:27 am

@SUKIE RIDGEMONT - well said, except the part about people getting into MLS. If they made it in, they deserve it, regardless of genitals or skin colour.

Jacob debets

4/11/2017 12:21:03 am

Possibly my favourite De Minimis article ever.

Duncan

4/11/2017 01:29:47 am

Agreed

TDMS

4/11/2017 03:34:24 am

Would you two stop trolling the comments section please

Contrarian

4/11/2017 04:09:16 am

Disagreed

Longtime listener firsttime caller

4/11/2017 04:30:27 am

This article is so good it made me question everything I believed in. Like The Matrix, except I didn't fall asleep when Laurence Fishburne started to explain my privilege.

Laugh+EyeRoll

4/11/2017 05:10:30 am

The article is good. You got a laugh or two out of me. The cartoon, not so much. Pretty sure Asad has done more than just politely mention his experience haha. From the outside looking in, it seems like he's bullied Virginia. Bullying is pathetic and mean, no matter how coloured/queer/minority you are.

In defence of cartoon

4/11/2017 03:39:49 pm

I think the cartoonist is only responding to the De Minimis articles and comments on them rather than any outside controversy or arguments from the magazine.

In any case, I enjoy the bringing of satire and levity, from both the author and the cartoonist, to this heated issue

Spicy Snowflake

4/11/2017 05:20:59 am

Hahahaha I love this. Good job, Jessie Fernandez. People, no-one is saying your life can't be hard IF you're white/masc/straight etc, but it's not hard BECAUSE you're white etc. Calm your farm and do a google of things you don't understand. There's no shame in educating yourself

"Your life isn't hard because you're white"

4/11/2017 06:07:56 am

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/14/mother-aaron-dugmore-bullied-school-claims-inquest

"The mother of a nine-year-old boy who was found hanged in his bedroom has claimed at an inquest that he was bullied at his primary school.

"Shortly after his death in February last year, his family was quoted as claiming Aaron, who is white, was bullied because of his skin colour. "

I can Google too

4/11/2017 06:30:12 am

Outstanding research skills.

" police had found no evidence of any bullying at Erdington Hall Primary School, Birmingham, where Aaron had recently started.

The hearing was told that on the night he died, Aaron had argued and kicked his younger brother, before being sent to his room."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2691875/Boy-9-hanged-sent-room-arguing-younger-brother.html

"a police inquiry had found no evidence of systematic bullying"
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-28299544

Prejudice =/= racism

4/11/2017 07:19:02 am

Uff ok sincerely, poor kid. Look of course bullying is bad. What is your point exactly? Are you equating playground bullies, literally children, to centuries of state-sanctioned institutional abuse of power? Systems put in place specifically to favour certain groups over others? Considering the history of this land, I suggest you start at learning about the concept of "the Other". No not a ghost story starring Nicole Kidman, but the idea that certain peoples are labelled "other" and treated as such, in a systemic way. Whether you want to believe it or not, there are longstanding social, political and economic systems that impact the way we navigate the world and how people perceive us. Whether you want to believe it or not, plenty of research has been done to prove this. It's p basic sociology. And if you don't like being told you benefit from somebody else's oppression, guess what, the way to stop this from happening is to stop benefitting. But people who trade with the psychological wage of whiteness don't want to relinquish the benefits of it hey https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other

Racial prejudice

4/11/2017 08:30:19 am

'Paul said: “He became argumentative with his brothers and sisters, which
wasn’t like him at all. Eventually he told us that he was being bullied by a
group of Asian children at school and had to hide from them in the
playground at lunchtime. He said one kid even said to him, ‘My dad says all
the white people should be dead’.

'Kelly-Marie claimed: “He was even threatened with a plastic knife by one
boy. When Aaron stuck up for himself he said it’d be a real one next time'

"But despite complaints to the school, where 75 per cent of pupils come from
ethnic backgrounds, they claim nothing was done to stop the bullying."

But at least he had his white privilege to comfort him as he slowly choked to death. And what a relief to know the undoubtedly indefatigable police inquiry found no evidence of bullying. Everyone knows of course that the police and the investigations they conduct are paragons of transparency and honesty.

Sorry, but...

4/11/2017 03:25:58 pm

Did you just quote The Sun?

Or was it another reputable source like:

http://islamexposedblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/youngest-suicide-in-uk-induced-by-asians.html

or

http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2013/02/nine-year-old-british-student-aaron.html

(I don't actually want to know)

This just in

4/11/2017 10:38:34 pm

We've got it all wrong. This whole time we've been led to believe that First Nations Peoples are the most disproportionately incarcerated communities in the world, followed by Black and non-Black People of Colour. When actually, the police have a racial bias against white people! And playground bullying is the new kyriarchy! Wowza thank you for enlightening us. You are a noble hero amongst us mere brown folks. Make De Minimis Pale Again

Yikes

4/11/2017 10:57:40 pm

One, again white privilege does not mean that nothing bad can ever happen to a person who happens to be white. Seriously. Scroll up and grow up. Two, children bullying other children is not the same as an institutionalised imbalance of power. If you want to talk about children being hurt as a result of an abuse of power, we only have to look back a few months at the horrific news about Don Dale. You're deluded if you think racism and anti-Blackness has nothing to do with that. Again, read up on terms like "the Other" and "kyriarchy" before you speak on things that you clearly do not understand. It's okay to not understand. What's important is that you take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes. We are all here 4 u bb, you can do it <3

4/29/2017 02:44:51 am

Privilege is relative. People look up the ladder of privilege, not down.

To a poorly skilled working-class 'white' man, a lawyer of colour is privileged. To a Malaysian-Singaporean employed in the hospitality industry, a Chinese-Singaporean professional is privileged.

And yes, (insert name of dominant ethnic group in particular country here)/white privilege is a thing but there are many types of privilege (financial for example).

Simple example. My wife went to a private school in Sydney. On scholarship. She was surrounded by peers who arrived a school in new BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, Volvos etc. Her parents drove a 1980s Toyota corolla. Is she privilege for having received that quality of education, along with the bonus UAI marks (as they were then) that private schools in that state got at the time? Yes.

Was she as privileged as her classmates with similar grades? No.

Me? sucky rural public school, raised by a single 'snow wog' mum from a northern European country most Australian's don't even know exists. Not much (relative) privilege there.

You look at the people above you, not below you (and yes, that is a problem in itself).

My wife is privileged when compared to most in Australia, let alone the world. I suppose I am now, as well.

That said, when she looks at her fellow senior associates, our old law school alumni and where they are now, we are not privileged. They started ahead of her financially, and as parents pass on and leave assets to her friends, colleagues and alumni that relative privilege (financial for example) increases. They have social and business networks, acquired from family, that we can only dream of.

That in turn has flow-on-effects. We couldn't afford a live-in-nanny or au pair, so we both worked 80% of full-time to reduce childcare costs.

Career limiting for her (several colleagues, both male and female who had children at around the same time were promoted ahead of her), career killing for me - was told bluntly I would not be promoted or receiving salary increments until I 'was committed to the firm'. I moved firms shortly after that.

So here we are, some 8 years after graduating from MLS together, 7 years after marriage, 4 years after the birth of our first child and the privilege that some of our alumni and her friends has helped them become more privileged.

Do I begrudge it? Sure. I'd love to get extra time of work to do my masters at MLS the way some of my colleagues who went to the 'right' schools in Melbourne do, without putting in forms, instead of being told to 're-read the policy'. I'd also love to have a mother or mother-in-law who was available to provide care for our children a few days a week, because they never had to work because their husband was loaded.

But do I have it good compared to most in Australia? Sure. Good home, investment property, relatively nice cars, holidays, being able to (kind of) afford to work part-time to spend time with our daughter.

Compared to those who can't afford childcare, and have to exit the workforce, I'm privileged. So is my wife. Compared to my colleague from Hong Kong with no support in Australia at all, I'm privileged.

Compared to the 'old boys' and 'old girls' networked lawyers I worked with? Heck no.

Privilege is relative people. There is ALWAYS someone less fortunate that you, and there is ALWAYS someone more fortunate than you.

It's not only about skin colour, or money, or connections, or class. It's all that and more. So yes, 'white' people can be (relatively) un-privileged, but yes, this is (usually) going to be when they are compared to other 'white' people, or Asian professionals (my personal experience suggests the bamboo ceiling does not exist, but the glass-ceiling for care-givers, male or female, most certainly does).

Privilege is relative people. So any funny as the article was, privilege-ism is a thing. People *assume* that because you are (a) white (b) a lawyer who went to MLS (c) married to a lawyer who you studies with at MLS that you are privileged - and you are, at least compare to many people, but NOT ALL. And as much as we don't like to admit it, they are the ones we compare ourselves to.

Rant over (from a 'snow wog' MLS graduate sick of people assuming he was born with a phucking silver spoon in his mouth)

Kitty

5/1/2017 03:53:36 am

To true John.

If you want to see an rampant example of privilege-ism you only have to look here:

https://www.change.org/p/anti-defamation-league-stop-this-hate-symbol

Seriously? WTF?

PSA: Stand Up to Privilege-ism

Leave a Reply.