Is Privilege a curse word

Is "Privilege" a curse word?

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            Politically I spent many years as a die-hard Conservative, some as a wannabe Libertarian, and lately I have been hearing Progressive voices. I guess my present understanding of privilege reflects my hearing all these voices, as well as my attempting to hold these thoughts captive to Christ. I will not claim to be writing the final word on this subject or even the best word. I have some thoughts I will submit to others as each of us tries to think through the issues of privilege.

            In my conservative and libertarian days I would have denied there was any such thing as privilege and especially I would have denied there was anything wrong with people having privileges in the sense of natural advantages over others. There is a difference between equality of ability and equality in personhood. There is a difference in being paid equally for equal work and being paid equally for differing responses to opportunities. I think at some level most of us realize that while they often travel in the same circles, justice and equality are not identical terms.

Yet at the same time I wish to hasten that I have learned much about privilege in listening to progressive voices. Sometimes we limit our ability to hear each other by our particular leaning to the varied definitions we think of when hearing a word like privilege.

Before writing this blog I looked up the definition of privilege on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Here were the three definitions:

1)  “A right or benefit that is given to some people and not to others.”

2) “A special opportunity to do something that makes you proud.” Let’s change this one to “a special opportunity to accomplish something for yourself or others.”

3) “The advantage that wealthy and powerful people have over other people in a society.”

I suspect that how we look at privilege will depend upon which definition(s) we perceive as best capturing the reality of how privilege works within a society. In listening to the voices I am more than ever convinced that the dynamics of privilege include all three of these definitions.

Conservatives and Libertarians have the tendency to claim the first two definitions while underestimating the importance of the third. But for the Christian any doubting of the third definition ought to be quieted by a reading of some of the Old Testament Prophets, the Gospels, or the Book of James. Simply put the wealthy and powerful are often described in the Scriptures as being guilty of stacking the deck in favor of clinging to wealth and power at the expense of others. Progressives have made an important case for showing that capitalism has often been employed by the wealthy to funnel the labors of the poor and working classes into the creation of tremendous wealth for a small class of wealthy capitalists. In our past, Western Civilization has conquered people, taken their lands and resources and have enslaved others. It can be argued that in the present, Western governments’ first function seems to be to preserve the system of banking and international finance serving the elite who pays the bills for political campaigns. The case can be made that increasingly our system, whether in appearances or reality, is a system of privilege which serves those within the power structure and has dwindling benefits as one is positioned further from that privilege. Thus minorities often seem to enjoy fewer benefits than those who have been the traditional citizenry of our Western civilizations. Furthermore through our international finance system, an American generally has a higher life style than a third world worker because we are paid in dollars that as the international reserve currency is accorded more benefits than other currencies. This in turn hurts America’s poor as it becomes structurally beneficial to provide off-shore jobs to people whose money is undervalued instead of paying Americans in their dollar currency. This helps to explain why in America we have such a disparity between America’s middle and wealthy classes and our poor classes. The gap between the wealthy, the prosperous, and the marginalized is growing and there is some reason to believe that part of this problem is structural and is built into the system.

That said I believe that alongside such a reality there is a need especially among Christians to also recognize the first two definitions of privilege.

One of the difficulty needing faced by much of American Christendom is that we are meant to be a community. Our participation in the Lord’s Supper, wherein we either partake of the body and blood of Christ in reality or symbolically, helps to define us as being a people who are one in Christ. St. Paul’s teaching on varied gifts within the Church commands us to consider our privileges as gifts meant to be employed not for our individual uses but for one another in the Lord. If I have been given a gift, talent, wealth, or privilege it is not something to be used for my personal advantage only but for the sake of my neighbor and for others in the Lord.

The Apostle Paul spoke of graces and gifts in such a way as to encourage every person in Christ’s body to realize that some form of gift or grace has been granted to each of us whether rich or poor. That one which has received more, from him or her God expects more. But none of us should imagine we are wholly without gifts. This is neither healthy for our own estimate of ourselves, nor is it beneficial to those who will benefit by our gifts and abilities and privileges whether they be large or small.

In the end the one thing I am convinced of is that we live in an American Christendom where divisions including racial and socio-economic divisions have greatly hindered us from being capable of encouraging the use of gifts given to each and also have limited the benefits of gifts most needed by our weak and poor. In truth we are all privileged some little and others much, and we need to be using such gifts of grace to benefit each other and especially to benefit the weakest and poorest in our midst wherever we may discover them. I cannot but help believe that nothing is more detrimental to us than our establishment and toleration of the numerous divisions which we allow to divide the privileged from the needy among us.

We should understand that privilege is a reality and then go about the work of redeeming our reality. This means for the privileged not to be haughty or self-satisfied with our gifts but understanding that whatever gifts we have been given have been given for our service to others and not simply for ourselves. It also means that even if our privileges are small and seemingly miniscule that we ought to build upon them to increase them that when possible we may contribute to the needs of others. The widow who gave her all in a single copper coin gave more than all the wealthy. But also we must seek to overcome the divisions which make it impossible for us to see the needs of others. We cannot imagine that an affluent life dedicated to ease or luxury is the extent of what is expected of us when we have been given much. We give ourselves to Christ only as much as we give ourselves to the weak and needy in our midst.

What is privilege? Is it merely a structure that divides the affluent from the needy? Or is it a gift of grace meant by the giver of all good things to be employed for the good of our neighbor and of the needy so that whether rich or poor the one who is in need has all he needs and the one who has been blessed with the earth's goods is living upon what he needs and is a source of help to those who are needy? Privilege may be a curse word, or it may be a gift of God's grace. I suppose each reader must answer what it shall be.