CESP Blog

The main way that we explored the topic of privilege was from sharing our own experiences, which I find as one of the most powerful and meaningful ways of connecting to an issue. It was good to talk about privilege with people who do a lot of community work because we ended up talking about why we do this work. We talked about how often we feel like we are learning as much or more from the people we are there “to serve� than they get from us.

One specific example of an “aha� moment for me was when one girl brought up how the crime alerts on campus often describe the perpetrator as a “Somali� male, but how could they have known if he was Somali without asking or seeing ID? We get used to assuming people belong to one category or another without actually knowing anything about them besides their race. We also talked some about what to do to actively confront our friends/other people when they say something racist/classist/etc, which I think is an important conversation to have because it’s such an uncomfortable position to be in.

Amelia

a summary from another student:

Wow! It seems that we got a lot out on the table during Thursday’s RAP session. It was an excellent opportunity to learn about other people’s views and knowledge about the topic of privilege concerning race and class. For me, it was an eye opening meeting filled with many “aha� moments as people shared their experiences with the topic in their classes, community experiences and life in general.

During the first part of the workshop, we started out by the facilitator reading a list of statements, and those to whom it applied to would stand up. It was described as “learning at the expense of each other� because some of the statements were embarrassing to be associated with. Nevertheless, I thought it was a great way to see how many of us consider ourselves privileged and what we think that privilege is based on the statements.

Another part of the workshop was on class privilege. In this part, we looked at what things were asked on employment applications. We came up with many ideas such as GPA, experiences, credentials, degrees, etc. Some people also suggested that employers would want to know about a person’s hygiene. We talked about issues were we expect people from certain classes, such as the upper class to be dressed in a certain manner and to display a certain hygiene and to use certain language.

In this workshop, I discovered the various definitions for privilege out there and what others think it means. This workshop was a great reflection for me because I was able to recognize my own perceptions about privilege and how to respond to prejudice that I hear from others. We helped each other brainstorm ways to react to inflammatory comments made by people we love, respect, etc. These are people we generally would have a hard time saying something like, “what you said was racist� to. This workshop helped me to find what an appropriate response would be to comments that were prejudiced.

One more summary from a student:

I was really interested in the workshop because it addressed an issue that I have often struggled with personally. I was also curious as to see how a room full of people who have chosen to dedicate so much time and energy to community work would approach the topic of privilege. I would guess that many of us are very aware of the disadvantages within many of the communities where work but I would say that we don’t think often enough about the subsequent privileges that we benefit from everyday. I feel this aspect of inequality is important to consider because it helps make one more self-aware.

I think that our discussion was moving towards the conclusion that self-awareness is necessary because as individuals benefiting from various forms social privilege (ingrained in the system) we have a responsibility to use this privilege to confront the system and individuals within it.

Sometimes I feel that there is a belief that the person who is non-white, the person who is poor, the subordinated women, the homosexual, .. etc. is supposed to fight against existing (and discriminatory) systemic inequalities more than others ……simply because the person is obviously marginalized and it is their self interest.
But we must come to the realization that it is in the interest of all to address inequality. As beneficiaries of certain privilege we have a responsibility to take the position of undeserved power given to us and use it to speak out against the system. We should have high expectations for our own involvement and commitment to issues of equity and equality.

Accordingly, we should come to community service with knowledge of the privilege that has gotten us there. We must come with the firm commitment to use this privilege to help others AND help ourselves break free. The professor of my service-learning course right now, Kathleen Ganley, often uses the following quote in class (one which I believe is appropriate for this discussions)

"If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But, if you have come because your liberation is bound up in mine, come and let us work together.�
This quote was mentioned briefly at our RAP session and I believe these words are what we keep coming back to in any discussion of privilege.