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About privilege: the caterpillar and the snail (Original Post) gollygee Apr 2015 OP
Twerking insects. xfundy Apr 2015 #1
.. gollygee Apr 2015 #2
I don't like the analogy. What's your shell? Taitertots Apr 2015 #3
It's less literal than that gollygee Apr 2015 #4
 

Taitertots

(7,745 posts)
3. I don't like the analogy. What's your shell?
Sat Apr 25, 2015, 08:31 AM
Apr 2015

This implies that there is something about the snail that physically prevents it from getting to the party.

Priviledge isn't about how your attributes prevent you from an equivalent outcome. It's about other people preventing equivalent outcomes because of your attributes.

gollygee

(22,336 posts)
4. It's less literal than that
Sat Apr 25, 2015, 09:14 AM
Apr 2015

The idea is to have empathy, to be able to see that not everyone is dealing with the same things you're dealing with, and there might be things that didn't even occur to you that make things harder for someone else. Ability level is one area where privilege is seen, but even in other areas of privilege, you can be held back by your lack of privilege. Another fairly literal way is with wealth privilege. Without money, there are places you simply can't go.

And even with race privilege, without that privilege there are places that aren't necessarily safe to go and things that aren't necessarily safe to do. I heard a speaker once talk about jogging, as one small example. Someone complained that people of color in her city didn't exercise enough. She replied that there weren't any gyms in the part of town that where the majority of people of color live, and that gyms can be prohibitively expensive. The person replied, "That's no excuse. Anyone can jog anywhere, and it doesn't cost anything." But that person was speaking from a place of privilege - not thinking about how racism affects people of color and might make jogging an unrealistic option. When white people are seen running along a street, they're assumed to be jogging, but when people of color run along a street, people often make different assumptions and they sometimes have the police called on them, or just get stopped by the police. They might feel justifiably held back from jogging due to safety concerns. The assumption that they could simply jog is very similar to the caterpillar saying, "Why can't you just go under the fence?"

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