navigating power & privilege, addendum

Earlier this year I wrote some thoughts about navigating power and privilege. It's a really important topic in the current climate that wants to roll back all the gains that DEI policy and focus has gained over the years. Those gains haven't been enough and rolling them back because of white guys with fragile egos is a travesty. It's also not what the country at large wants (just look at what's happening with Target).

My article focused more on the personal though: what I could do to navigate my own power and privilege. I opened in part with this:

Power and privilege is always a struggle. I wish it wasn’t but it is. No matter who we are or what we do it's something we'll have to reckon with internally to some degree. I say to some degree because I do think the struggle will vary person to person and dynamic to dynamic. Intersectional forces make any attempt to fully understand power and privilege quite situational.

It can be so difficult at times. But, I think that's kind of the point. It's in those difficult, uncomfortable spaces that growth happens.

the privilege of not knowing

I intentionally chose the banner image I did as I think it highlights a key but all too often missed point when navigating power and privilege: it's a privilege to not experience oppression.

I don't know what racism or sexism or homophobia or transphobia feels like. I've not ever experienced oppression in the way that many, many people have. It's important to recognize that that is a privilege that's all too easy to take advantage of.

I think it's also a privilege that leads me and people that experience it to do ill-advised things in response to being confronted with our privilege and power. The banner image highlights one aspect: pushing education responsibility on to those without power and privilege rather than taking that responsibility ourself. We shouldn't be afraid to do the inner work and educate ourselves as much as we can rather than expecting people to re-live their pain and trauma for our benefit. DARVO is also an ill-advised response (particularly reversing victim and offender). There's another ill-advised response though that I think is worth exploring a bit more: we act without taking the time to sit with the weight of our power and privilege and it's affects.

the privilege to act

With power and privilege comes the ability to do. Power and privilege often means we can build, we can make systems, we can turn things on, turn things off, adjust dial X or knob Y because said power and privilege gives us access to the resources to make things happen. Action isn't necessarily bad but action can easily become a replacement to sitting with the weight of our own power and privilege, especially when it's immediately what we turn to.

It's a privilege to be able to act but nothing actually changes if we use action as a replacement for sitting and reflecting. Personal growth happens in those rough, uncomfortable spaces where we have to reckon with ourselves, what we've done (or not done) and what we'll do going forward.

moving towards transformative action

Action could easily be a result of that time of sitting with our own weight but it will likely be misguided if it doesn't come from that time. Acting too quickly can further alienate those experiencing the lack of power and privilege. It can show them that we don't actually care about our own growth or (potential) misuse of power and privilege. The actions we take can have the appearance of a band-aid or outward facade without real internal transformative change to back it up.

Action should be transformative, coming from the place of transformative growth which is more often than not a long and prickly venture. To steal a phrase from Eugene Peterson, it's a "long obedience in the same direction" (that direction here being a divestment and dispersion of our power and privilege in a way that brings liberation). Transformative action comes from a deeper understanding of the effects of our power and privilege, listening and reflection on the weight others feel and moving towards doing in ways that those without power and privilege feel invited into not isolated by.

the privilege to grow

I've said it in different ways above but it's worth saying again as someone with power and privilege because of what I was born into: it can feel really hard to reckon with the weight of what our power and privilege causes. That's OK to say and recognize (as long as we don't use it as an excuse to navigate the pain that those without power and privilege experience). What's more important though is embracing the privilege to grow. Not everyone gets second chances. Not everyone has the opportunity to explain themselves or learn from mistakes. All of that prickly uncomfortableness we might feel has the potential to bring forth some real transformation if we move into it and embrace it. More often than not, this is what matters most.