You’re right about the ignorance part of privilege—and contrary to SJW, it’s quite possible for people in the less privileged categories to be ignorant about at least some of the problems of people in the more privileged categories.
I’d love to find a way to disentangle the ignorance part of the idea of privilege from the power grab, but I haven’t figured out how to do it.
My general tactic has been when people use the term to say more or less the version like what you quoted is “problematic” and then explain more or less the ok meaning. Most of the time if you do so, people will be more careful at least for the remainder of the conversation.
On the other hand, at least once when I did so, I was informed that what I was attempting to do was “mansplaining” and “coming from a position of privilege to control what it means to have privilege” and I more or less threw up my hands. I don’t know if the individual in question was hopelessly mindkilled or not, but it exceeded my patience level.
You’re right about the ignorance part of privilege—and contrary to SJW, it’s quite possible for people in the less privileged categories to be ignorant about at least some of the problems of people in the more privileged categories.
I’d love to find a way to disentangle the ignorance part of the idea of privilege from the power grab, but I haven’t figured out how to do it.
My general tactic has been when people use the term to say more or less the version like what you quoted is “problematic” and then explain more or less the ok meaning. Most of the time if you do so, people will be more careful at least for the remainder of the conversation.
On the other hand, at least once when I did so, I was informed that what I was attempting to do was “mansplaining” and “coming from a position of privilege to control what it means to have privilege” and I more or less threw up my hands. I don’t know if the individual in question was hopelessly mindkilled or not, but it exceeded my patience level.