Privilege

Life is hard. There is no harder or hardest. Hard is hard. You can’t say it’s harder to tell your child you’re getting a divorce than telling a patient that they have cancer. They’re both equally hard. They’re both in different situations. Hard is hard.

But there is a type of protection wall called privilege. There’s a lot of different types of it. The type that you’re born with: skin color, eye color, hair color, natural body weight, level of family income, genes, etc. And some of them are developed: things you like and dislike, things you become good at, the way you see the world, the way you control yourself, etc.

Having a privilege doesn’t mean your life is easier or less hard. But instead, it means that because of that certain privilege that you have, you are immune to certain hardships that other people aren’t immune to.

Having a privilege is ok. You might feel like you don’t deserve it, that you having it is unfair, that you don’t want it, or similar feelings that makes you feel bad about having the privilege. But having a privilege means you can help people who don’t have it without you getting hurt! Just like how you get a vaccine and you can help sick people to get better without you getting sick. It’s ok that you don’t get sick. It’s not about whether or not you deserve it, but more about a weight put on you to help others. Having a privilege should come with a sense of humbleness. The understanding that you’re not better than anyone else just because you have a certain privilege.

To make this more clear I’m gonna use it in an example. I am privileged to be living in a first world country, while my friends and family are having a really rough time in a third world country. I am in no sense worthy of this privilege. If I could choose, I would give the privilege to someone who could have a better use of it than me. But since that’s not an option, I have to use my privilege and help the people back home. Me living in a first world country doesn’t mean that I’m cooler, or am living an easier life. But it’s a fact that it is a privilege compared to living in a third world country that has been destroyed by the same first world country. And as a result, I don’t have to endure some of the hardships that people back home have to deal with.

Privilege.

It exists and it’s not okay to ignore it or keep quiet about it.