HANDICAPPING THE OPPRESSION OLYMPICS.

At Arizona State University, the deep thinkers have compiled a series of Privilege Checklists.  I've been of the view that the identity politics crowd long went beyond parody.  Apparently, though, even if circles of oppression have empty intersections,  it's possible to work out dot, cross, and Kronecker products for vectors of oppression.  For example, even black males have privileges to check.  I wonder, though, if the people who compiled the list weren't high on ganja, or perhaps Stormfront plants, when I read stuff like "I can be a part of a black liberation organization like the Black Panther Party where an 'out' rapist Eldridge Cleaver can assume [a] leadership position," or "I will make significantly more money as a professional athlete than members of the opposite sex will," or "I have the privilege of knowing men who are physically or sexually abusive to women and yet I still call them friends."

There's enough stuff at the Arizona State umbrella site, though, to suggest that a lot of Serious Thinkers were at work, coming up with Privilege Checklists for people of all races, creeds, colors, and conditions.

And what, dear reader, is this privilege?

It's about advantages you have that you think are normal. It's about you being normal, and others being the deviation from normal.

Almost everyone who is reading this had some form of privilege. If you’re a member of three marginalized groups, in ill health, and poor, you're still able to access and use the internet, both demonstrating and conferring privilege.

Some privileges are easy to demonstrate: Can you go into a random restaurant and order food? That's not something that those with food allergies, diabetics, celiacs, or a range of other conditions can count on. It's not something people whose religious convictions include following Kosher, Halal or other faith-based dietary restrictions can count on in western society either.

Some privileges are harder to demonstrate: If you get a job, to what extent was that based on the way you look, your gender, your accent, your connections? How can you tell?

Put another way, in a universe where there is no cosmic justice, there will be people who might have better chances, no matter how hard we work at ensuring everyone a fair go, and in a world where humans are free to associate or not, there will be insiders and outsiders.  Privilege-checking strikes me as the least effective way to appeal to the better angels of our nature, as it's just a big guilt trip, including for people who might be subject to multiple oppressions only to learn they are less oppressed than others.

How big is the guilt trip? "Privilege makes you blind. Privilege is a big bag of stuff you're not forced to think about."  If you don't have to think about it, that might be a good thing.  Although there might be a lot of job opportunities for hack scholars calling themselves Serious Thinkers if we have to rediscover ten thousand years of learning ab initio, over and over and over again.