The Knapsack

 

So Right Wing twitter was ON FIRE yesterday because apparently a Canadian Home Depot dared remind people of their privilege. How dare they? Not like the Home Depot is that woke, mind you. You do know it was founded by Ken Langone, a Cheeto supporter, right? The Home Depot is not a hotspot when it comes to Wokeness. It's more Redneck Central than Ivy League. Also, it's not a Home Depot store in America. I knew it could not be. A cursory look at the way they spell some words it'll tell you it's most probably a Canadian store. Canadians. A better version of the U.S. at every step.

But back to the snowflakes who think anything that reminds them that they're racist assholes is supposed to be verboten: Fuck Them. The idea of shielding reactionary racists from being aware of their racism is ludicrous. Some of us work in places where Unpacking the Knapsack is customary and talking about privilege is something that few dread. But not all workplaces are the same. You probably work for a company/multinational/place that does not do sensibility training and that lets racism and sexual harassment run rampant. But you'd be in the minority. 

Not even my manfriend -who works for a company that doesn't seem that 'woke'- escapes doing sexual harassment training. It may be an Illinois thing, though. But he is one of those people who seldom checks his privilege, so I made him kind of unpack his knapsack and we got some surprises: 

First, he was kind of unaware of his multiple identities (gender, age, religion, socio-economic status, race/ethnicity and sexual orientation) because he went with the most obvious: the ones people can see. But there's more to him than what people see. There are several types of oppression and privilege: racial, by class, by gender, by sexual orientation, by ability, by religion, by age, by status, by military service, by immigrant status and by language.

So, he's a white, middle class, cisgender gay man, without any disability (and hence we started). He's a non-practicing xtian, over forty, does not have a four year college degree and is not a veteran (he had never thought about these, btw). And he is US-born and only speaks English. What we did realize is that almost all of his identities are the dominant identities in the United States, and those identities have been historically privileged in the United States. By recognizing this, he can understand better who he is and who are the people with whom he interacts every day. By understanding his privilege, he can:

1. Learn how others are impacted by the privileges he has (and the fact that acceptance of his privileges does not subtract anything from who he is).

2. Find opportunities to speak up and act for those who are underprivileged. This can be calling out bad jokes in social circles, donating to reputable causes, or speaking up about the lack of diversity on the workplace—to name a few (and make him an ally instead of a passive spectator, something that we are guilty of sometimes).

3. Be cognizant when speaking over or centering himself in conversations with people less privileged than him (and avoid being condescending or blind to other people's struggle, natch).

Some of these things are obvious, and some are definitely not. All of these things make us who we are. It does not mean that he has not been a target of discrimination (he may have certainly been) and each of them creates a burden on the individual that come with a set of challenges. The idea that the Right wingers refuse to see this and see it as one more reason to be outraged tells you everything you need to know about them.

Also, Peggy McIntosh's tool has been in use for years (the racists are butthurt now, but it's been around for a long time, exactly since 1989, but you know how they pick and choose their grievances) and many companies and workplaces use it to help people understand Privilege and the Systems of Power that rule over all of us. Recognizing our privileges does not mean that we have not faced challenges or that fucked up things have not happened to us. It just means that those things have not happened to us because of the color of our skin, or our immigration status or our gender identity, for example.

I have privileges. I am a cisgender male. I do not have to deal with transphobes or justify my existence every day, for example. And I would have more privilege than a cisgender female in some occasions and situations. I have a college degree and speak more than one language: that helped me get a job that would make retirement a clear possibility, that keeps me from being a paycheck away from homelessness and that keeps me from struggling without health insurance. I am not Black or Native American, but I can understand and relate to the struggle a Black man in the South goes through or the plead of a Native American woman in Colorado without negating or belittling my race or ethnicity. Recognizing my privileges does not take anything away from me, on the contrary, it lets me see and reconcile my identities and that helps me see others better. 

So, are you ready to unpack your knapsack, Constant Reader? Recognizing privilege is not a matter of shaming. It's not a matter of feeling 'too' privileged, it's a matter of understanding others and where they come from. By understanding who we are, we understand better the world around us. That's something that a Repug could never understand and it's of course beyond the understanding of any MAGAt. Being aware of our privilege (or lack thereof) is essential to understand the world around us and interact with it without melting at the least provocation. Just ask the racists on Twitter.

So here we go. A shorter version of the ADDRESSING identities self-assessment:

• How do you identify?
• Is your identity one that has historically experienced more privilege/power or barriers/stigma?
• Is this identity visible, hidden, or concealable?
• If this identity is associated with barriers and stigma, do you experience this identity as a source of strength, stress, or both?
• How much do you think about this identity? (1 = never, 5 = very often)
• Does this identity impact your mood or mental health (how you think, feel, behave)? (1 = not at all, 5 = completely).
• Does this identity interact with other identities, causing more or less stress?

The answers may surprise you.

XOXO