Queering privilege :: Essays Papers

Queering privilegeIn any groups struggle against injustice, a glint of jealousy and bitterness seems to accompany persuasions of the oppressor and those positioned in places of privileged inwardly structures of domination. Generally it is acknowledged that there are no simple scapegoats upon whom to unequivocally level blame for all the worlds maladies, tempting as purpose and accosting such a character is. Despite the growing willingness to let go of old myths of directly responsible villains, there remains a not orthogonal urge still to describe and intellectually master (exert power over by gaining knowledge of) those who inhabit structural locations of privilege. Taking the case of Patricia Hill collins black feminism, a rather nuanced understanding of such characters is developed to better know their place. However, the accounts of this sort of simplistic anti-domination critique ultimately replicates, in its theorizing, the assimilationist incompleteness of the modes o f thought it initially rejects.For people to be structurally positioned in relatively privileged ways means that they routinely receive benefits and escape discomforts as compared to trends in another(prenominal) people. Usually these trends about what is routine and how other people live rely on some creation of a category of normal from which others are unsounded as departures. A first issue is to determine what a benefit or discomfort would be. By discomfort, of course, I mean to sarcastically understate the roam from daily and accidental inconveniences to very intentional brutality that makes up a common experience of grinding oppression that structurally condemns folks as individuals and groups. Similarly, benefits orthodontic braces a sizeable range in their particularity, but compose an overarching preponderance of niceties. However, who gets to decide what is oppressive or beneficent might be the effected person, individual higher up, or impersonal criteria, but th is is a question for ethics one is tempted to bracket. Some groups, it then seems, are in better places, but who are they? If black women can be defined as a group by first noticing the trends that particular people encounter, such as often creation suspected of shoplifting, and then correlating these patterns with their constructed identity (the combination of categories black and woman) (Collins 25-26), then perhaps groups with structural privilege can be understood similarly. The categories of, say, man and exsanguinous do seem to line up with systematic privileges. In Patricia Hill Collins black feminism, both the criticisms and alternative methodologies offer some insights into the nature of a position of privilege and what it means to inhabit it.