Privilege comes up in our peer support trainings (which all volunteers and staff attend). We discuss the concept quickly but deeply. I don't like to spend a lot of time on the topic because folks can really get in their heads about it and we want to train people to engage with each other in ways that don't become similar to deer in headlights, lost in navel-gazing, instead of being their authentic selves with clients & colleagues. We do our best to train people while also trying to reduce overthinking things.

I do see privilege as real. My training posits that (1) literally everyone has forms of privilege, (2) it is both earned & unearned, and (3) it should never be seen as an automatically negative factor. We position the understanding of privilege as a way for us to simply be respectful to our colleagues and clients. For example, a doctor has earned privilege via their medical degree, so those without often privileged medical information need to have that information explained to them in ways that they can understand. Or, an able-bodied person has unearned privilege (again, not a negative thing) when it comes to mobility, so should have awareness of where they schedule meetings with folks who are not able-bodied (e.g. not in places where a person in a wheelchair can't go).

This is just one of the ways that we try to foster understanding about how each and every one of us moves about in the world. And, more implicitly, it is also about taking back more pernicious and certainly divisive ideas that have come up around the idea. I do the same thing when it comes to speaking on intersectionalism. We do not come up with a hierarchy or pyramid of oppression in which cis white men are representative at the top, as the enemy or oppressor. Instead, we flatten the concept.

We all have privileges; we all are the intersection of many identities. This is true for both the disabled elderly woman who didn't graduate high school and the straight, college-educated, white-passing man sitting right next to her. Both have the privilege of having enough time to volunteer or the ability to work 35 hours a week & get paid reasonably.

An overarching theme of the training is recognizing commonalities. Another is respecting individuality. Trainees must hold both concepts as inherently equal and important.