Privilege check.

I admit that privilege is a thing: as a white, cisgendered, middle class, educated male, I have some privileges that others don't have to deal with. Even as I tentatively plan to go back overseas in a few years, I am keenly aware of the privilege I will carry with me, and chances are I will use that privilege to my advantage. My white, male forbears have set up the world for my success, and have even provided excuses for me if fail. Lucky me.

One of the most discouraging things about having privilege is the fact that there's no way to escape it. Once I've admitted to it, it becomes an immediate, abstract, indefinable burden. My privilege becomes a weak structural support for any argument, a fallacy that I can't escape. If ever somebody doesn't like what I have to say or think, they can make an appeal to privilege and I will likely shut up, not wishing to create a power imbalance. For a sensitive person, the "You think that way because of your privilege" is an effective silencer; I don't want to contribute to the social structures that put me in this position, but my inherent privilege makes it impossible to escape the attack. Silence is the only option.

I'm already feeling stuck in the cycle as I'm trying to discuss it and want to abort this post right now, but I'd like to try to explain the problem I find myself in right now:

I admit that I have privilege, but I'm getting weary of trying to find a way around it. There's a cycle of powerlessness associated with all "You're privileged" attacks. "Privilege" and "enabling," both legitimate, real psychological and social phenomena, can also be used to silence and disempower. I don't know how to articulate this without digging myself into a hole, but perhaps I can do it with a bulleted dialogue:

• "You can be silent because you have the privilege to do so; others don't have the choice to be silent"
• "Don't speak for other people; just because you're a white male doesn't make you an authority on anything."
• "Nobody needs to hear your opinion because the culture has heard your opinion enough already."

I've heard all of these accusations directed at me before. And I don't disagree with any of them: I'm fully aware that the white male opinion is the dominant opinion; I'm fully aware that I should not speak for other people; I am fully aware that my silence sends just as loud a message as my mouth-flapping does. I don't want to deny the importance of these ideas. I know that the ideas of privilege have been developed to deal with the many bona fide power imbalances of our culture. Those power imbalances are real.

But I also believe that we need to hear individual voices, that understanding one another comes first. Accusations of "privilege" should not be used as an argumentative bludgeoning stick. Any accusation that decreases empathy and sympathy will breed resentment because they take away agency, take away a voice. Privilege is a real thing, but using is as a tool to derail arguments, to silence ideas, or to decrease the power of empathy, seems like a misuse of the term.

Of course, I'm probably using my own privilege to redefine the term in a way that benefits me. 

And the cycle continues.

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