In movies you see people giving it all up to be monks and give back to society etc. That is quite practicable and many in society do indeed do that. But what really is privilege?
There is no notion dumber than thinking people will give up their privilege!
Even if they try, they can’t. Why? Because PRIVILEGE is not something you can give up
Spreading it round and trying to create privilege for others is perhaps achievable
You take for example, kids born into poverty, they get to schools where the teachers have low expectations of them, they get a lot less exposure to other natural means of learning e.g. travelling. They most likely have friends who are in the same situation and are likely to be in a network of later CEOs who can offer them opportunities. You see children of working-class folks in the Western Hemisphere taking a year University exchange in third-world countries, rubbing shoulders with children of the elite in those countries – that’s privilege. You won’t see children of working class nor even the elite of third world countries studying in the UK rubbing shoulders with our elite would you? At best, they will be expected to hangout with working class kids here.
Privilege is when you get up one morning in the UK, US or elsewhere in the developed world and decide it’s time to spread your wings to go and work in Australia, Sweden, Japan or any other developed country and you saunter across.. Do we then expect those with these privileges to give them up in the name of equality? Don’t be obtuse! Why would they?
When people yell to others on the street: “go back where you’re from!” It is solely because they believe those countries are in a dire strait or as a infamous politician was said to have said “shit holes”. So, what happens if we industrialise those countries and develop them? What happens if we end the need for people to risk losing their lives and those of their children on rubber boats crossing the Atlantic? I doubt anyone would yell “go back to where you’re from” if they can see that those countries are better or at worst, as developed and pleasant as over here would they?
But therein lies the dilemma
Even if an individual decides to give-up his or her privilege, it is not achievable as such action will still be in the knowledge that’s should things get sticky, there is a network of privileged friends and acquaintances (you can’t delete old schoolmates etc.) to fall back on. The underprivileged do not have that safeguard.
Even though a class of “old money” folks will still try to look down on those they would describe as “new money” and many still look down on footballers, basketball rich folks etc., compared to centuries ago when only children of certain privileged families got access to education and travel, the opportunities are slightly more open today, but society still has some work to do, but we will choose not to. Instead, we have mechanisms such as loans and penalties to continue to keep many down in the gutters. The map of global wealth is cleverly arranged and countries such as China, who have, through hard work, managed to get out of poverty, face negative press and criticism from countries such as the USA, where’s millions are incarcerated and many are afraid to drive on their roads as a stop by their police for a broken rear light or hanging an air-freshener on a rear-view mirror usually ends up fatal for those demographics. I am not a supporter of China as I do not know enough about their country to be a supporter, neither do I know enough about them to criticise them and in any case, I am sure they have positives and negatives and may also be out to rule the world like others have tried to, over the years. But they have worked hard and have innovated and developed their nation and if Africa, South America, South-East Asia and other under-developed parts of the world can do the same, sustain themselves, industrialise like China have, some of the delusions of grandeur by the types who feel “go back where you’re from” is an insult, will quickly change. Imagine shouting “go back where you’re from” to a Chinese person? the response would be: GLADLY! 35 years ago, China had 0km of high speed railway. Today, they have more kilometres of high speed railway than the rest of the world combined. Yes, they are criticised for human rights issues and other issues, but the “Land of the free” (our dear USA) is the country that has more prisoners than any other country in the world and a country where a past president tells other immigrants like himself (noting almost every American is an immigrant) to go back to where they’re from, but still, 74 million Americans (nearly half of the country) decided he is the leader they want? Similar to China, I have a limited knowledge of America and no reason to have any issues with them, there remains a lot of positives about America and the 80 million+ who decided they needed to have a different president and a less intolerant direction. In any case, there’s not much difference in America, compared to other developed countries. We all need to do better: China, America, US, Canada, Australia, African countries etc., the current state of the planet is a collective failing, be it in terms of human rights, poverty, immigration, you name it. It is a collective fiasco..
We are hell bent on repeating past mistakes.
Can America drastically reduce its mass-incarceration, train its police force to serve & protect instead of doing the stuff we see in the news (whipping out a gun regardless of a situation is not a demonstration of serving and protecting)? YES. Will they do so? probably not
Can China improve its human rights record and stop trying to take over the world to become the new America? They can, but will they? probably not
Is the US a good country? YES. If not, why would so many tried so hard to get there? Same for the UK and others. But there is good & bad everywhere. The world saw Iraq invade Kuwait, tried to do good there; are they better off? Look at Afghanistan today. Libya, list goes on. There must be other ways and methods to do good….
Can the privileged give up their privilege? Not really. Should they? No (in any case, they can’t even if they tried). But can we achieve equality by providing privilege to others? Yes we can, even if total equality can never be achieved. As Confucius said: THE FIVE FINGERS ARE BROTHERS BUT NOT EQUALS.
Knowledge can improve the world we live in 