06-05-2018, 11:55 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-05-2018, 11:56 AM by danbrotherston.)
Having a privilege is not evil nor elitist.
Owning a car is a privilege, but it doesn't make you bad or good, it's what you choose to do with that privilege that matters. If you refuse to acknowledge it as an advantage, and act as though others who don't have that advantage don't exist, or are bad because of their actions that result from not having a car, that's not a good thing.
If you recognize that you have a privilege and seek to enable those who don't to enjoy some of the same benefits you enjoy because of your privilege, well that is a good thing.
And there are vast swaths of middle ground where we're all just people who live our lives and are neither good nor bad.
ijmorlan's example may have seemed slanted, but only because it challenges the idea that we should blame people who are taking a shortcut, when we enjoy the privilege of a transportation system that largely (and I say this as a pedestrian and cyclist, who is privileged to live downtown) works for us. Other's may not have that advantage and may find it harder to get where they need to go. I certainly feel this any time I leave the relatively pedestrian and transit friendly downtown cores.
When people get all defensive about their privileges being pointed out, it's an indicator that they feel guilty about them, which just isn't right...I feel no guilt about the many privileges I enjoy being a straight white male in North America, but it does open my eyes to the fact that other's don't have those advantages, and that I should seek to enable others who lack them to succeed as I am able to, partly through my own abilities, but also through the advantages I was born with.
Owning a car is a privilege, but it doesn't make you bad or good, it's what you choose to do with that privilege that matters. If you refuse to acknowledge it as an advantage, and act as though others who don't have that advantage don't exist, or are bad because of their actions that result from not having a car, that's not a good thing.
If you recognize that you have a privilege and seek to enable those who don't to enjoy some of the same benefits you enjoy because of your privilege, well that is a good thing.
And there are vast swaths of middle ground where we're all just people who live our lives and are neither good nor bad.
ijmorlan's example may have seemed slanted, but only because it challenges the idea that we should blame people who are taking a shortcut, when we enjoy the privilege of a transportation system that largely (and I say this as a pedestrian and cyclist, who is privileged to live downtown) works for us. Other's may not have that advantage and may find it harder to get where they need to go. I certainly feel this any time I leave the relatively pedestrian and transit friendly downtown cores.
When people get all defensive about their privileges being pointed out, it's an indicator that they feel guilty about them, which just isn't right...I feel no guilt about the many privileges I enjoy being a straight white male in North America, but it does open my eyes to the fact that other's don't have those advantages, and that I should seek to enable others who lack them to succeed as I am able to, partly through my own abilities, but also through the advantages I was born with.