#CallingOutMyPrivilege podcast

in DSound4 years ago (edited)

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This is a podcast I'm only sharing on Hive just now, as I'm noticing that there's an ugly self-defensiveness that comes up from folks in privilege - focussing on those above them who have more/ perceived as not having had to struggle as much as they have.... Trying to keep the conversation open and expansive ...

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE

I've been delving deeper and deeper down this rabbit hole of what white/ economic/ cultural/ gender privilege really IS, and how we can have more self-awareness and compassion in it, in our power-responsibility, in order that we can CHANGE the world for the better.

I've been understanding more about what keeps us numb and blind to our OWN assumed entitlement, things that we all take for granted, which are actually using unconscious manipulation and power-over others/ the environment/ life.

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This is a fairly blunt-speaking podcast and I appreciate that it is focussing in part outside of myself rather than speaking entirely about my own specific entitlement patterns. However, having this big, unravelling conversation is helping me to recognise where my own manipulations and prejudiced assumptions are: we have to express ourselves in the world, to have the world reflect our untruth back at us.

Much love,
Clare

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Usually I am on the opposite side of the field, but your words do seem to reach across a bit better than most I have heard. Mainly I take on the attitude to not give unto others more than I have for myself, else I might spiral back down into my past failures which were so difficult to escape.

The language (word choice and phrases) we choose makes a big difference in opening minds. Buzzwords link us to a faction in alignment with or against a group of people. When repeated, a person listening might jump to the conclusion that the person speaking those words is as extreme as the latest provocateurs who were shouting it in a viral altercation video.

Compassion and understanding are universal truths that transcend parties and division, which I think opens doors. Thank you for this.

Thank you sooo much for this beautiful response, @creativetruth - yesss! Compassion is a hard line to walk, when the privilege perpetuates because an entitled person is so very insensitive to the effect that they're having on those around them. And doesn't want to be sensitive to it, because they genuinely believe that THEY'RE the hard-done-by one... I feel that this is one of the illustrations of having the 'privilege' of being able to hold onto our trauma and use it as a means of 'proving' that WE are 'victims', so that we can retain our privilege, essentially.
Sometimes, depending on what the atmosphere of the conversation is, there's a time and place to pull away a veil - but sometimes that veil might need a yank ;-) I am always learning more about the art of the removal of the veils... Compassion requires mastery, presence, awareness of where we might be using our power heavy-handedly... I learn a lot from responses like yours. :-)
Much gratitude to you,
Clare

I am so happy to see this! Privilege is sooo hard to define until, like me, you live cheek by jowl with people who don't share it.

I'm trying to craft a post about this thought too - will try to do that over the weekend and link your podcast to it.

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Precisely - thank you @artemislives and @naturalmedicine - and yes, living within a relatively less privileged culture SHOULD slap us wide awake to our privilege, but there's a collective numbness in expatting circles that is truly shameful. I'm having a difficult time opening a discussion on this with a good friend and supporter of my work, but am keen to find ways to persist in defining it, as this is the time to get it all out in the open!

I've never had the words for what privilege is until now that I'm being so deeply moved and educated about racism in the USA, and how the american economic model (inherently ingrained with racism and profound unfairness) is bulldozing cultures around the planet - all under the guise of being the great white saviour... And how I personally have benefited from and continue to hold greatly enhanced freedoms over others where I live.

Much more to unravel, eh!