Unintended Privileges

Privilege, the word had been wondered in my head since listened to Tim Wise’s speech in The Pathology of Privileges. I just realized that there were many different meanings behind the word “privilege.” The definition of privilege was described as a benefit that one had over another; however, in my knowledge, the word “privilege” was mostly associated with the word “wealth.” For example, if two people, one wears all brand clothes and one wears sloppy clothes, came in the store, who did you think will be treated better? Without a doubt, the one wore brand clothes would be treated nicer while the other would probably be deemed as like a stealer or something. This was obvious a privilege or a discrimination between social classes. Even though we are considered as living in an equal society, but as a human being, we could not hide from the fact that we already had the thought of being distinguish in our mind.

Wise’s speech taught me another important privilege between skins’ colors. The Whites did have privileges over the other races, while Whites females would still lose the privilege to the Whites males. Their privilege came from the domination, and since we lived on their land. I believed that each person had their privilege in a specific area, but they might not realize that. For example, my former manager is a White male, who appeared to be sympathetic with Asian employees much more than with the others, because he said that we would mostly work harder than other employees. Could this be considered as a privilege that our Asian people had over the other cultures as being more diligent? It was a myth that every Asian was working hard, and being diligent was absolutely not a culture’s characteristic. Sometimes people just looked at a few patterns and could immediately declare it that way without thinking much or trying to find out more. Wise’s point, “it is not about guilt but it is responsible,” had the strongest impact on me. It is each individual’s responsibility to treat others equally just like the way we want others to treat us.

Tammy Mai

KIN 338I, Sect. 01