The definition of privilege is in reality much simpler than a lot of social justice discussions would have you believe. Privilege, in the social justice context, is an advantage a set of advantages that you have that others do not.

These privileges are not due 100 percent to your efforts (although your hard work may indeed have privileges are disproportionately when compared to what the privile be ascribed to certain social grou ability, gender, class, etc. But you may have not considered, like differences. It is in these advantage the health and well-being of nefits of these ally undeserved dvantages can often on race, physical lie in areas that logical ges that people are often determined. If we are truly dedicated address ystemic oppression and inequality, we must understand the full impact of these advantages and disadvantages in order to move toward real change in our society and ourselves.

-From “So You Want to Talk About Race,” Chapter 4

Wrapping Up Dorothy Day:

So I finish up with Dorothy Day this week and I get to this profound moment in the book Dorothy Day, Selected Writings by Robert Ellsberg. The chapter is titled In Fields and Factories | Labor, and I find myself reflecting on privilege as I read these words, “Every one of us who was attracted to the poor had a sense of guilt, of responsibility, a feeling that in some way were living on the labor of others. The fact that were born in a certain environment, were enabled to go to school, were endowed with the ability to compete with others and hold our own, that we had few physical disabilities – all these things marked us as the privileged in a way.”

Then we get this zinger, “We felt respect for the poor and destitute as those nearest to God, as those chosen by Christ for His compassion. Christ lived among men (humans).” Of course because in the Kingdom of God, things are flipped upside down – reflect on the Beatitudes and what Jesus says about the poor…

So at last, I pause to reflect on my own privilege as a white gay cis-man living in suburbia USA with only a few more months to go on my 3rd degree. I reflect on Dorothy’s words, and I reflect on my own privilege today.