This is all occurring in a medical school and affiliated hospital. There is one enormous source of privilege that none of them even notice.... the privilege of being a physician. This incurs preferential treatment across all walks of life. But the fish can never see the water they are swimming in.
Many years ago in the 80’s I studied with a documentary film maker, how to construct ways to give a feeling of truth to powerfully manipulative emotional works, and what is acceptable and not in doing so.
A theme which popped up many times is “X” is bad, people of “X” are terrible, dishonest human beings, but poverty is OK, people of poverty are saints, suffering in honesty
So let’s start by clarifying from this DEI cruft
Privilege = Wealth
In DEI literature it constantly proclaims privilege is a possession, that possession was stolen, it’s (humorously) in a knapsack, all the usual ideas from 35 years ago (quite creaky).
These messages tell you that
1. if you’re in one or more of the groups, you stole your wealth and are bad
2. If you’re not in these groups, you should not aspire to wealth, remain saintly
I’m sure people know this but the privilege thing is repeated so often, but never have I heard DEI speaking of lifting people out of poverty of money, health, mind and community,
The ourobouros, the snake here, for me it is an ancient symbol of natural cycles, death and rebirth.
🃏 more akin to a house of cards collapsing.
DEI is 🦊 a fox, an old symbol of trickery and deceit; perhaps also satan, the prince of lies.
Every word of the DEI statement is precisely that, lies, not unlike the lie of “gender” or the lie of “race”.
Ugh, privilege is both unearned and earned! E.g. a doctor has certainly earned their privilege, as have many who have earned their wealth, as has an executive director of an agency who has spent many years in the field getting to where they are.
I don't know why this specific error is so annoying to me; it's such a small one when looking at the entire fiasco. But I hear this "privilege is unearned" assertion all the time and it frustrates me to no end.
Either earned or unearned, the emphasis on privilege these days is ridiculous. It's something to be aware of so that we are respectful in our communications and attitudes. Not something for us to obsess over.
I don't think this is a small point, but rather an extremely important one. Thank you for making it.
Another important distinction that the letter misses is the difference between privileges that everyone should have as a matter of basic human respect (e.g., to not be treated with undue suspicion by police because of one's race) vs. privileges that no one should have (a job obtained through family connections, say, or a "legacy" admission to a University.)
It's also worth noting that many things that are considered "white privilege" in part result from the fact that white people have long been in the majority in this country, and so to the extent that there are race-based cultural differences, "white" cultural values will naturally be to some extent considered normal, and those from non-white cultures as deviations from the norm. Differential social and economic power between racial groups plays a role here too, of course, but it's far from the only factor.
Finally, the list of privileged groups given completely ignores the many and varied situations and institutions in which being considered to be a member of a historically marginalized group confers quite extensive privileges which are unavailable to others. This is especially true at almost all levels of academia. What is particularly unjust is that such privileges are often conferred not on those who may have come from disadvantaged backgrounds in the US, but rather on wealthy elites from Africa or the Caribbean who come from enormous privilege but also have the "right" skin color—while poor or underprivileged whites often get no such preferential treatment.
Wish that I could say something in response that is more compelling or robust than "I agree" but that's basically all I can say. I agree 100% with everything you say here.
Worth a good read.
BTW she is middle class.
"A White author calculated just how much racism has benefited her. Here’s what she found" on SmartNews:
Link
https://l.smartnews.com/p-PNFGN/Pn3W6e
This is all occurring in a medical school and affiliated hospital. There is one enormous source of privilege that none of them even notice.... the privilege of being a physician. This incurs preferential treatment across all walks of life. But the fish can never see the water they are swimming in.
Diversity Lie of the Month
Many years ago in the 80’s I studied with a documentary film maker, how to construct ways to give a feeling of truth to powerfully manipulative emotional works, and what is acceptable and not in doing so.
A theme which popped up many times is “X” is bad, people of “X” are terrible, dishonest human beings, but poverty is OK, people of poverty are saints, suffering in honesty
So let’s start by clarifying from this DEI cruft
Privilege = Wealth
In DEI literature it constantly proclaims privilege is a possession, that possession was stolen, it’s (humorously) in a knapsack, all the usual ideas from 35 years ago (quite creaky).
These messages tell you that
1. if you’re in one or more of the groups, you stole your wealth and are bad
2. If you’re not in these groups, you should not aspire to wealth, remain saintly
I’m sure people know this but the privilege thing is repeated so often, but never have I heard DEI speaking of lifting people out of poverty of money, health, mind and community,
The ourobouros, the snake here, for me it is an ancient symbol of natural cycles, death and rebirth.
🃏 more akin to a house of cards collapsing.
DEI is 🦊 a fox, an old symbol of trickery and deceit; perhaps also satan, the prince of lies.
Every word of the DEI statement is precisely that, lies, not unlike the lie of “gender” or the lie of “race”.
Thanks, Amna. The analogy to a snake eating its own tail is perfect.
Ugh, privilege is both unearned and earned! E.g. a doctor has certainly earned their privilege, as have many who have earned their wealth, as has an executive director of an agency who has spent many years in the field getting to where they are.
I don't know why this specific error is so annoying to me; it's such a small one when looking at the entire fiasco. But I hear this "privilege is unearned" assertion all the time and it frustrates me to no end.
Either earned or unearned, the emphasis on privilege these days is ridiculous. It's something to be aware of so that we are respectful in our communications and attitudes. Not something for us to obsess over.
I don't think this is a small point, but rather an extremely important one. Thank you for making it.
Another important distinction that the letter misses is the difference between privileges that everyone should have as a matter of basic human respect (e.g., to not be treated with undue suspicion by police because of one's race) vs. privileges that no one should have (a job obtained through family connections, say, or a "legacy" admission to a University.)
It's also worth noting that many things that are considered "white privilege" in part result from the fact that white people have long been in the majority in this country, and so to the extent that there are race-based cultural differences, "white" cultural values will naturally be to some extent considered normal, and those from non-white cultures as deviations from the norm. Differential social and economic power between racial groups plays a role here too, of course, but it's far from the only factor.
Finally, the list of privileged groups given completely ignores the many and varied situations and institutions in which being considered to be a member of a historically marginalized group confers quite extensive privileges which are unavailable to others. This is especially true at almost all levels of academia. What is particularly unjust is that such privileges are often conferred not on those who may have come from disadvantaged backgrounds in the US, but rather on wealthy elites from Africa or the Caribbean who come from enormous privilege but also have the "right" skin color—while poor or underprivileged whites often get no such preferential treatment.
Wish that I could say something in response that is more compelling or robust than "I agree" but that's basically all I can say. I agree 100% with everything you say here.
They say you have privilege
And don’t “check it?” That’s sacrilege!
Oh, I know! Nice work if you can stand it!