PRIVILEGE

I loved the day that we spoke about privilege.  I'm going to be honest and say that I had no idea what "privilege" was and had only heard it in articles titled with the word "white" before it.  I think I, subconsciously, did not want to be a part of the argument that was constantly seeming to surround it, so I just kept myself ignorant.  Dr. Fletcher explained privilege as the things we don’t even have to think about.  I’m privilege to be American.  I was just born here.  I didn’t have to fight to be here.  There are some people who have to constantly think about what they say.  In their countries, they don’t have freedom of speech.  I was born with the right to free speech.  I don’t even have to think about it.  I just have it. 

After the Ferguson verdict, my Facebook was going insane.  People were outraged.  Some people were replying to the outrage with apologistic posts.  It was crazy.  I deleted a lot of people from my Facebook because of their ignorant comments.  The next day, I had to teach my 1025 class.  I’m not a psychology, sociology, or history professor; but, I am my students’ teacher and, sometimes, it’s appropriate to deviate from the plan for the sake of a discussion. 

I asked them if anyone had ever talk to them about what “privilege” meant.  Much to my surprise, none of their teachers had and, like me, the only one they had heard of was “white privilege.”  We had a discussion and they had such wonderful things to say after I explained what privilege was.  By the time we got to the end of the conversation, we all concluded that, yes.  Everyone has the opportunity to succeed.  BUT, does everyone have equal opportunity to succeed?  No.  It’s something that will continue to be with me.  They were so open and willing to hear about it.  Instead of arguing about privilege, we should attempt to educate people on it.  I think we have a lot of people who think they know what privilege is or means and they are mistaken on the definition.  They take it as an attack.  It’s hard to hear someone say anyone is privileged when we’re in a recession and no one can get a job and everyone is in a tremendous amount of debt.  But, anyone who says it doesn’t exist is proving the point that it does!  They don’t think it exists because they don’t have to think about it. 

The other night, after rehearsal, I walked into my boyfriend’s apartment and had my stun gun in my hand.  He looked at me, laughed, and said, “Do you really need that?”  At first, I got a little irritated; but, then I remembered.  He’s a man.  He has the privilege of not have to worry about someone over-powering him or trying to hurt him.  I just replied, “Yeah.  I do” and left it at that.  

EMPATHY

Maggie raised some interesting questions.  Can we really only reach people if they are willing to listen or should we be trying to reach past those people to those who will not.  I think is change is to really be made, one has to attempt to get to the latter.  I think the best way to really do this is to write about things you know or have experienced.  If artists share their truthful point of view, they will always be compelling.  It makes me think of our one-person shows.  I have written mine about my family and ambiguous loss.  I think one-person shows are a great medium for empathy.  They can be anything.  They are story-telling.  They are also very interactive.  The audience becomes a character that the person/people that they person performing speaks to.  Anything that will include the audience will illicit empathy.  That's why I love the re-enactment exercises.  You could even switch roles and feel what it would be like to be the other person.  Anything that is interactive will FORCE you to think.  It will force you to choose a point of view, as opposed to the theatre that just asks you to come, sit for a bit, and forget.