Privilege

In Roxanne Gay's essay, Peculiar Benefits, she discusses the importance of acknowledging one's privilege. So often we get caught up in our daily lives and the work load of college and work, that we forget our ability to go to school is a privilege. We often overlook the fact that we had been given the opportunity to further our education. School is seen as a chore, when it is really something that many people don't even get a chance to partake in. Gay talks about the importance of recognizing our privilege in our daily lives, because we all have some form of it. However, she says that we should not apologize for the opportunities we were blessed with, but it's important that we understand them. I thought this part was really eye opening because I catch myself complaining about tests and projects, when I should be grateful that I have the opportunity to take those tests, and do those projects. We should be able to look around and understand that others experience life in ways we may never have to.

Comments

  1. Raquel GorresDecember 4, 2017 at 3:09 PM

    I love how you brought to light the topic of addressing one’s own privilege in daily life because it’s not something people usually think about. More often than not, people focus on the privilege that they don’t have, instead of thinking about the privilege that they do have. Recognizing your own privileges can be beneficial because it gives you the opportunity to use your privilege to help those who don’t share it. It also gives you the opportunity to educate yourself on those specific topics in order to become less ignorant of the fact you have this privilege, and learn how to use it for the greater good.

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