priv·i·lege
noun \ˈpriv-lij, ˈpri-və-\
Definition of PRIVILEGE : a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor : prerogative; especially : such a right or immunity attached specifically to a position or an office

This concept has been coming into the collective consciousness more and more lately. White privilege, male privilege, straight privilege, religion-of-choice privilege…  The interesting thing about societal privilege is that it’s very difficult to see it when you are a member of that particular group.  It has to be defined in relation to other groups: what can they not do that I can not only do, but don’t have to think about my ability to do? Awareness of your own privilege requires both self-awareness and an awareness of what being Other truly means.

It’s a difficult topic. It makes people us uncomfortable, because they we are frequently confronted with it in a manner that puts them in the wrong. So of course they we get defensive, of course they we don’t want to examine it!

I realize this is not the sort of topic you might be accustomed to seeing in a spiritual blog. It should be, though. Peter Dybing wrote about Pagan Intolerance this week, and Intolerance can be a byproduct of Privilege. He brings up an excellent point, one that is relevant to this blog:

As part of my personal practice I hold those opinions and individuals with whom I disagree in what I call “Sacred Regard”. They provide me the opportunity to dig deeper, develop compassion and understanding, acknowledge the diversity in community and more clearly define my own understanding of the nature of the divine and my relationship to the Goddess.

Tolerance is a spiritual principle. A better one is what Peter defines as Sacred Regard. If we stop thinking of people as Other, and we start to work to understand them, we grow, we evolve, we become more than the sum of our parts.

Something I have been personally working rather deeply this Spring has been the Shadow Self. If you want to be effective, if you want to move forward in your life, if you want to not be stuck, you must be fully in alignment. That means self-examination, knowing what your weaknesses are and even befriending them, ultimately turning them into strengths. That means looking at the Uncomfortable Truths in your life. What are those parts of you that you don’t like to acknowledge? What are those parts you would like to ignore? Be aware of yourself in all your parts.

For some people, that might mean looking at the concept of privilege.

Peggy McIntosh:

I have often noticed men’s unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged in the curriculum, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged. Denials that amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages that men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully recognized, acknowledged, lessened, or ended.

In this potpourri of examples, some privileges make me feel at home in the world. Others allow me to escape penalties or dangers that others suffer. Through some, I escape fear, anxiety, insult, injury, or a sense of not being welcome, not being real. Some keep me from having to hide, to be in disguise, to feel sick or crazy, to negotiate each transaction from the position of being an outsider or, within my group, a person who is suspected of having too close links with a dominant culture. Most keep me from having to be angry.

In proportion as my racial group was being made confident, comfortable, and oblivious, other groups were likely being made unconfident, uncomfortable, and alienated. Whiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit in turn upon people of color.

David J Leonard:

The “it’s suppose to happen” in inner-city communities reframe is not surprising. Places like Columbine, Aurora, and Newtown exist because of the fear-industrial complex. The white middle-class flocked from cities into the suburbs and rural communities partially due to fear of black and Latino youth, integrated schools, and urban crime. The continuously deployed the narrative of “it’s not suppose to happen in Newtown” and their neighborhoods mirroring “American family’s dream” embodies this entrenched belief. The efforts to imagine Holmes and Lanza as good kids turned evil, to scour the earth for reasons and potential solutions, works to preserve the illusion of safety, the allure of white suburbia, and the power of whiteness.

and Jim Keller:

Many people believe white privilege does not exist. Many people believe straight privilege does not exist. Those people never sat up all night with a list of dentists who take their insurance desperately trying to find one who believes that gay people are fully human.

You see, a straight person cannot perceive straight privilege when it happens any more than I can perceive white privilege. One cannot decline this privilege. It happens silently, insidiously. Seriously, have you looked at the list of associations your dentist belongs to, and researched each one? Why would you? Why would anyone — unless they’re a member of a minority group and aware that certain groups are, in fact, out to get you?

It is easy to see where we don’t get something that others can easily have, but it’s much harder to see when the roles are reversed. Doing the work to create the awareness is an important part of spiritual growth.  There are resources out there that can help you in this regard; here are two such examples:

The Male Privilege Checklist

The article by Peggy McIntosh has a pretty good list of White Privilege, as well as how she arrived at that list. She uses as definition “a list of special circumstances and conditions I experience that I did not earn but that I have been made to feel are mine by birth, by citizenship, and by virtue of being a conscientious law-abiding “normal” person of goodwill. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though these other privileging factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can see, my Afro-American co-workers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place, and line of work cannot count on most of these conditions. “

What’s your list? I’d love to know.