One of the most difficult concepts for me in coming to understand my own privilege (PDF file) is the idea that you can have privilege in society and still be miserable. I don’t even have much of anything to complain about from society’s standpoint—I was born a white, mid-to-upper-middle-class, heterosexual, cisgender, able-bodied, reasonably-conventionally-attractive male. (I had never even heard the word “cisgender” until about two years ago, and my iPhone autocorrect still doesn’t seem to know it.) The only areas where I might lack privilege (atheism and mental health) are not immediately apparent to people who don’t know me, and haven’t seriously impacted my life (mostly because of the areas where I am privileged).
Whatever struggles I have had in my life, I’ve always had the benefit of financial support, access to good health care, and everything else that comes with the various categories I listed above. I’m not saying this to brag, but rather to say that I’m very, very lucky, and to illustrate that the challenge for me and others like me, when it comes to privilege, is understanding and acknowledging all the ways it has helped me while doing what I can to make things better (or at least not make them worse.) This mostly involves shutting up and listening.
A blog post by Gina Crosley-Corcoran entitled “Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person…” (h/t Elizabeth) captures the seeming conflict between white privilege and actual lived experience: Continue reading
![By Ikiwaner (Own work) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/449px-Gombe_Stream_NP_einsamer_Schimpanse-224x300.jpg "By Ikiwaner (Own work) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons")
An organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project (NHRP) filed several ![By By Aaron Logan [CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Lightmatter_chimp_-300x200.jpg "By By Aaron Logan [CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons")
Through New York’s ![By Ludovic Bertron from New York City, Usa (Nottoway Plantation Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://crypticphilosopher.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/800px-Nottoway_Plantation_3964493172-300x199.jpg "By Ludovic Bertron from New York City, Usa (Nottoway Plantation Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
I’ve been sick for all of 2014 up to this point, so missed several stories I thought to blog about but lacked the energy—so I’ll blog about them now. Probably everyone with any interest in the topic has seen or heard about Ani DiFranco’s now-cancelled retreat at a refurbished slave plantation in Louisiana. There isn’t much I can say about it that hasn’t been said by people with far greater wisdom than experience than I, and that’s really the point. The only advice I can give to anyone in this sort of situation is to stop talking and listen.
Two important bits of news that came out today were the announcement of Janet Yellen’s 
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My wife and I decided to spend New Year’s Eve watching