| Re: Vegetarianism and reasons therefore [was: Coming out? |
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Group: alt.polyamory · Group Profile
Author: AquaAqua Date: Sep 20, 2008 07:51
Steve Pope wrote:
> Aqua internode.on.net> wrote:
> >> Steve Pope wrote:
>
>>> Aqua internode.on.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't know everything about this situation, but I do know that
>>> Australians are about as privileged (on average) as Americans so I fail
>>> to see how this experience ties into privilege. e.g. Australia
>>> presently has close to the same GDP/person as the U.S. (depending on
>>> exchange rates), and somewhat better social benefits to make up for any
>>> GDP gap.>
>> This had nothing to do with relative GDP. I wasn't particularly
>> unprivileged in that context, but my experience made me think a lot more
>> about what it could have been like if I was.
>
>> I think there are three components (roughly) to privilege: normalcy,
>> status/prestige, and power.
>
>> My mental model for thinking about a situation and who has what kind of
>> privilege goes like this: imagine you and the person you're trying to
>> figure out your relative privilege with have an argument that gets
>> really serious and/or turns into a fight. The people who attempt to
>> break up this fight (could be police, could be onlookers, could be friends):
>
>> 1) Will they be more like you or your opponent? (normalcy)
>> 2) Will they be more likely to listen to you or your opponent?
>> (status/prestige)
>> 3) Will they be more likely to be influenced by anything you or you
>> opponent can bring to bear? (power)
>
>> I know some factors can't be placed neatly into one category, but are
>> rather a blend. But this is useful for me in terms of thinking of the
>> different aspects of privilege.
>
> This all makes sense, but I still consider economic status to
> be an important part of overall status in almost any privilege
> determination. If two populations have roughly the same economic
> status, then that places more of a burden of proof on a person
> who is claiming that one of the two populations is more privileged.
?????????
I was in a situation where I was a bit less privileged than an
equivalent American. I took the experience to heart, and in fact
generalised from it to get a fuller understanding of how much it sucks
to really not have privilege. And you appear to have a major problem
with that.
?????????
Aqua
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