Natives Rising: Thoughts on Privilege

Arthur Martin Editor POW Report Editorial,

"Natives Rising" writes from their Facebook Page

Thoughts on Privilege-

If I were to ask everyone reading this to make a list of 10 things they would like to be so free and accessible to themselves they could forever take them for granted I am fairly certain few lists would look the same. There are people in this world who have incredible privileges most people don't have. The son of movie star, for instance, gets to meet some pretty interesting people the rest of us would bend over backwards for.

As tribal members we have some pretty interesting privileges we probably don't value enough because we take them for granted and spend too much time wishing we had the privileges of other people who at the same time wish they had what we have.

The problem for anyone who wants to tackle privilege is not so much that one person is starting out from a different station and this gives him an advantage, the problem is we are not all trying to get to the same place in life and therefore what one person can take for granted is not necessarily an advantage for him. Another way to say it is a guy who has plenty of food, clothing and shelter is not necessarily advantaged in his pursuit to become a better artist. Another guy who doesn't have these things may be blessed instead with native talent his richer competitor will never have and so be left in the dust by the guy born poor.

We so take for granted the things we have we can get angry at the people who have what we don't without realizing we have other things we can be grateful for they may not have at all. The business man's son who gets a new Maserati for Christmas might wish he had more of his father's time and less of his money.

Envy is the word we need to avoid. This means wanting what someone else has and possibly even resenting them for it. This is such an important mistake Moses even made it one of the 10 Commandments. "Thou shalt not Covet" he said, and that means [you] don't want what belongs to someone else.

Just because someone has privileges we would like does that really mean we want to switch places with them? What does it matter that Joe's dad can afford to send him to college and we need financial aid to go? We are not prevented even if we are momentarily stopped and maybe Joe's dad can't give him other useful things we so take for granted we don't understand why Joe wishes he were in our shoes.

Life is never fair and can never be fair. In the example of the college there are already so many people who enroll in school who should never have gone in the first place who is to say Joe isn't about to waste Daddy's money by taking a few classes and dropping out? We want to go so badly we apply for assistance and take full advantage when we get it so none of that money is wasted.

Privilege, we all have it in one form or another. Why waste time comparing our advantages to that of others? Why not move forward? If I have to run 2 miles to get a place someone else can simply walk across the street to I am not sure it matters so long as we both arrive. And we can arrive. Advantage doesn't necessarily mean barrier.

Your friendly neighborhood Ravenspeaker [website]