What I wish more people understood about privilege
1. Having privilege doesn’t mean you’re not a hard worker, or that you don’t deserve to be where you are.
It simply means we live in a system that doesn’t normally reward hard work. It means a lot of other people also deserve to be where you are, but you were one of the ones who happened to make it. You may have worked really hard for everything you have, but having that hard work recognized and rewarded is a privilege.
2. Yes, even your “high-skilled job” is a privilege.
We are being taught that some jobs can only be done by a minority of talented or highly-skilled individuals. If you’re a doctor, a scientist, or an engineer, it’s easy to think of your contribution to society as exceptional or superior. But the reality is that working a high-skilled job is just as much of a privilege as it is an achievement. It’s not that only a small minority has what it takes to be a doctor—it’s that only a small minority has the access to the resources required to learn to be a doctor, and find work as a doctor.
3. Having privilege doesn’t necessarily mean you’re rich.
Privilege comes in many different shapes and sizes. Your parents may not have paid for your Ivy League tuition or given you $250,000 to start your company. There are thousands, maybe even millions of people richer and much more privileged than you are. But there are billions who aren’t. The fact is, if you’re online right now, and reading this in English, then you have some degree of privilege, and that’s something you need to be comfortable admitting. Privilege is not about where you stand in comparison to the millions of people better off than you, but the billions who aren’t.
Besides, privilege is not just about money. There’s white privilege, thin privilege, pretty privilege—there is so much we inherit in life that can put us at an unfair advantage with respect to others.
4. You’re not required to apologize for your privilege—you’re required to acknowledge it.
Having privilege doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s not something to apologize for or feel guilty about. Privilege isn’t a crime you commit against others, it’s where you happen to be placed in the world in comparison to others. The point is not that you should be admonished for having privilege, but rather that it needs to shape your worldview and inform your opinions. Acknowledging your privilege means understanding that a large part of your success is due to circumstance, and a large part of another person’s failure is also due to circumstance.
5. Our stories can almost always be rewritten in a way that keeps our privilege in check.
Consider this story of how I studied engineering.
I was born and raised in Africa, but I studied hard and was top of my class in school and in college. I got accepted at a prestigious grad school in Europe. My parents never had to pay for tuition, because I was awarded full scholarships all the way through college.
Everything in this story is true, but the story itself is not. The real story goes more like this.
I was born and raised in Cairo, one of the largest cities and economic hubs in Africa. My parents were doctors, so they were able to put me in a decent school, help me with homework, and provide me with the environment and tools I needed focus on my studies. They had the awareness to teach me from an early age the value of a good education and fluency in more than one language, and pushed me to become top of my class. Because of that, I got accepted into a university that offered good exchange programs to Europe, where I managed to get into grad school.
I think it’s a valuable exercise to try and rewrite not just our own story, but our stories of others around us: the “self-made” billionaire, the homeless person at the street corner, the single mother on government assistance.
