Privilege, n. 

A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.

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Privilege is a complex and hard-to-define concept that is prevalent in every corner of our lives. Privilege is granted to people because of certain characteristics they often cannot control, such as their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, language, or religion, among others.

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There are many different privileges you might have heard of already. Male privilege. White privilege. Straight privilege. Hearing these terms often sparks divisiveness, and makes it hard to communicate. Because of this we tend to steer clear of these topics, classifying them as “taboo”, which only helps to amplify the negative connotations associated with these terms.

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But why is talking about privilege considered off-limits? Mainly because hearing the word privilege causes most people to become defensive, considering it an attack on themselves and on their upbringing, and ultimately stopping any future communication on the topic. This is the inherent problem, that many people misunderstand the term privilege and its relation to them.

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Having privilege doesn’t imply that a person has not experienced any hardships or will not have to undergo them. The fact that an individual has a privilege doesn’t make them a bad person, nor does it mean that they have not worked for anything they have achieved, or that they haven’t faced any obstacles along the way, or that they are automatically better than anyone else. It simply means that they have an unearned advantage simply by being who they are.

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Similarly, not having a privilege does not mean that a person is worth less than someone who has more privilege than them, or that the person with more privilege is somehow better. It just means that they do not have the same advantages and face different obstacles and challenges. Their worth as a person is not diminished or defined by their lack of privilege.

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These are just some things that are important to remember when thinking about privilege. I hope you learned something from this article, and please check out the links below to learn more about the topic of privilege!

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What is Privilege? | YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD5f8GuNuGQ

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What is Privilege? | Quartz at Work: https://qz.com/work/1373190/what-is-privilege-a-simple-definition-from-the-founder-of-backstage-capital/

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Why it's important to think about privilege - and why it's hard | Global Citizen: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/why-its-important-to-think-about-privilege-and-why/

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