Every time I see the word privilege now I groan. God I hate that they chose the word privilege to include things like "not being beaten up by cops" or "perhaps having your rights respected."

Just such a stupid fucking self-own. Cannot take privilege discourse seriously.

— Ian Welsh (@iwelsh) July 19, 2020

Agreed. That discussion and framework is fine in academia. Never should’ve escaped there, though. Outside of that milieu, it’s actively misleading and harmful.

People tell me I was as a kid “privileged,” for instance, but I started my life in a trailer park in rural North Florida, living in a 1960s trailer with literal holes in the floor. Some privilege that was. My point is not to bemoan my past circumstances, but to point out that privilege talk outside of the academy conceals more than it reveals. It just causes misunderstanding and resentment and perhaps that’s the point of it among many “progressives,” as they wish to resegregate the world in their own preferred way.