Is Privilege Situational?

Hello friends,

A while back I was discussing privilege in the SHHARE community. It was after a thread which shared and discussed a couple of versions of the privilege wheel.

Shifting Privilege

As I've said before, the idea that all Black people lack privilege is reductive and often incorrect. It's perhaps more helpful to think of privilege as an intersection, where some aspects of it can shift.

For example, all people racialised as white have the reduced disadvantage that comes with that skin shade, especially in countries where the majority of folks share their identity or in formerly colonised countries where generations of oppression have solidified some positive attitudes to the identity of whiteness. What they may not have is the privilege of financial resources, health insurance, good schools and so on, depending on where they sit in the social structure of their country.

In contrast, it's entirely possible for people racialised as Black to have the privilege of financial resources, health insurance and good schools but in countries where they are minoritised, their racialisation offers them little protection even when those other things are true. Find yourself in the wrong place and the advantages your money can buy will evaporate when the powers that be take a look at you.

My Own Experience

Let me bring it home to my own case. I commented in that discussion that my level of privilege also shifts by location and by area of engagement.

In the UK, my racialisation as Black has brought with it various experiences of racism that I've documented in my book and in this newsletter. I spent much of my time there as the "other" even when the day to day wasn't too bad. That didn't mean I didn't have friends and great experiences. But the education I received in the Caribbean also allowed me to get jobs that improved my knowledge and capacity and to get into a postgraduate study programme.