Privilege

Have you ever thought when you go out to eat in a nice restaurant that the person serving you probably can’t afford to eat in that restaurant? How about when you stay in a mid-range lodging have you considered that the housekeeping staff can’t afford to stay there? The fact that you and I can afford the restaurant or lodging means we are privileged.

Yes, we are privileged. We read this blog on the internet. We are privileged, because there are people living within a radius of no more than two and one-half miles from us who cannot afford a computer or internet service. The fact you and I can read means we are privileged. As hard as it may be to believe there of men, women, boys and girls in the same two and one-half miles who are functionally illiterate. More often than not, we do not consider these things as making us privileged.

You bet we are privileged. Can you go to a faucet, in your house, turn it on and have access to all the clear and clean water you want? There are people even here in the good ole USA who cannot do that. If you can you are privileged. I remember, when I was in Rwanda, seeing young children and baby carrying mothers hauling home large jerry cans of water which they had just scooped out of a muddy creek. I am painfully aware I am privileged.

Often it is difficult to acknowledge and accept the fact that in one or multiple ways you and I are privileged. If one student in a class room has two pencils and the student sitting beside her has no pencils the one with two is privileged. Now, some would have us feel guilty about being privileged. The real question is, do we use whatever privilege we might have to level the playing field for those less privileged? It is not just sharing one of the two pencils we may be holding. What are we doing to make sure the one with no pencils has the where with all to obtain pencils for themself. It is not about telling those less privileged to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  Have you ever tried to pick up both of your feet at the same time by your ankles? It cannot be done.

Trickle down economics can only be advocated by the super-privileged. It is based on the fallacious notion that as one gets richer the riches will flow down to those less privileged. The basic human inclination is to always want more than we currently have. Jesus told a story about trickle down economics in Luke 16:19-31.  Dives had to settle for the crumbs which trickled down from the table of Lazarus. The challenge to those with privilege is in reading what happened after both Lazarus and Dives died.

How do we use our privilege to level the field for those less privileged? That is the question I am wrestling with and hope you will wrestle with it also.