On Privilege
Make your kids aware of it from a very early age, the teacher told us. It will help them develop empathy, she added.
My daughter’s school organizes a weekly parent training session on Saturdays; they train us on how to teach the kids the basic concepts of language and math through various activities. This week instead, they chose to talk about privilege and showed us this video.
While the video is about White Privilege specifically, there are various other kinds of privileges in our society. The privilege of color, the privilege of gender, and in India specifically - the privilege of religion.
The thing about privilege (or under privilege rather) is that it compounds over time. All those tiny little disadvantages add up. It’s tough for someone to come out of it on their own.
It reminds me of that movie, Gully Boy. It takes multiple strokes of good luck for Murad to come out of poverty - narrowly escaping prison, having incredibly supportive friends, accidentally discovering the rappers club, and finding well-wishers and mentors in unexpected places. Without their help & support, Murad would never be able to break out.
Another more relatable example would be the privilege of gender. The various ways in which women today are disadvantaged compared to men is just mind-blowing. Look at this chart shared by @Nemo911 on twitter, that highlights the difference.
You should read the whole thread here. It’s incredible how this is not just a problem of one country or culture, it’s an issue that plagues all of humanity.
Like it says in the video, being privileged is not about being wealthy or being rich. It’s about the absence of having to live with the consequences of being underprivileged.
Unfortunately, most privileged folks don’t see the role it plays in their success.
It requires a conscious effort from all of us, especially the privileged ones, to create an environment that helps everyone have the best possible life without harming others. Like in the video, the ones running from a few steps behind have negligible chances of winning unless the ones ahead see the injustice and take a conscious effort to straighten the line and level the playing field.
It’s as much a lesson for us to learn as it is to teach our kids.
After all, like that Nike commercial says - we have a responsibility to make this world a better place.
Best,
Kaddy