Last year, in a discussion with a colleague, she shared her definition of privilege with me. She stated “it’s not having to think about it.” I thought about her statement for a minute and then realized, after further conversation, that she was right. My recent studies and conversations confirmed this thought for me too. As Jana (2014) discusses in her TED Talk, we all possess some form of privilege. It could be able-bodied privilege, social status privilege, education, income, employment, and other forms. Privilege is that which we DO NOT have to consider as a negative in our everyday lives. I don’t have to worry about whether the isles or doors in a grocery store will accommodate my wheelchair, or whether or not I’m able to attend a special event because I may not have clothing to wear, or my ability to read, comprehend and complete a task required as part of an interview. These examples of privilege are common for many and yet are experienced as barriers for others. “Not having to think about it,” rings true for me about what privilege is and what it means.

Wilkerson’s (2020) book, Caste, was gifted to me for Christmas! In her account of the hierarchical system, created to keep members of certain of groups in positions of economic privilege, Wilkerson portrays how a “powerful caste system influences” the lives of people in ways that go unnoticed. This “fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the inferiority of other groups on the basis of ancestry…”(p. 17). Personally, I have to reflect on how my own parents didn’t realize their dreams and hopes because of the inability to break through a system of disadvantage, born from an ancestry that was not privileged in education, income, employment, equity. Given my humble beginnings, my parents and grandparents would be very proud of what I have been able to accomplish, even as I consider what I still “MUST think about.” This year, in the coming weeks and months, while alone and with others, at home and at work, I hope to grapple with the realization offered by Wilkerson (2020) when she likens the inheritance of inequity and systemic racism to a house. While many of us did not create the foundation that we stand on today, it is ours “to deal with now.” And, in the words of my beloved mother: “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

References

Jana, T. (2014). The Power of Privilege: Tiffany Jana at TEDxRVAWomen [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR2uooglIdb1-jEaZT4oloqVXmsc5t6TMOxOQNxvut3k3Bd5XZjJyEzuXI&feature=youtu.be&v=N0acvkHIiZs

Wilkerson, I. (2020). Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. Random House.

Carla Chapman

A diversity trainer, coach and cultural conversations facilitator, Carla's work focuses on collaboration and engagement through an equity and inclusion lens.