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CounterPunch
October
4, 2002
The Costs of
American Privilege
by MICHAEL SCHWALBE
When it comes to knowledge of the U.S. government,
foreign students often put American students to shame. Many of
the American students in my classes don1t know how Congress is
organized, what cabinet members do, or how governmental powers
are divided among the executive, judicial, and legislative branches.
The foreign students who have shown up in my classrooms over
the years tend to know about these matters and more.
The gap is even wider with regard to
knowledge of U.S. behavior around the globe. When foreign students
refer to exploitive U.S. trade policies, military interventions
abroad, and support for repressive dictatorshipsÐas if any
educated person would of course know about such thingsÐAmerican
students are often stunned. Foreign students are equally amazed
when their remarks are greeted with blank stares.
But this level of ignorance is not so
amazing, really. It1s a predictable consequence of privilege.
Like white privilege and male privilege in our society, American
privilege brings with it the luxury of obliviousness.
Privilege comes from membership in a
dominant group and is typically invisible to those who have it.
Many whites do not see themselves as enjoying 3white privilege,2
yet as Peggy McIntosh has pointed out, there are dozens of ways
that whites are privileged in U.S. society.
For example, whites can live anywhere
they can afford to, without being limited by racial segregation;
whites can assume that race won1t be used to decide whether they
will fit in at work; whites who complain usually end up speaking
to the white person in charge; whites can choose to ignore their
racial identity and think of themselves as human beings; and,
in most situations, whites can expect to be treated as individuals,
not as members of a category.
Men likewise enjoy privileges as members
of the dominant gender group. For example, men can walk the streets
without being sexually harassed; men can make mistakes without
those mistakes being attributed to their gender; men can count
on their gender to enhance their credibility; men can expect
to find powerful sponsors with whom they can bond as men; and,
even in female-dominated occupations, men benefit from being
seen as better suited to higher-paying, administrative jobs.
Whites and men tend not to see these
privileges because they are taken to be normal, unremarkable
entitlements. This is how things appear to members of a dominant
group. What1s missing is an awareness that life is different
for others. Not having to think about the experiences of people
in subordinate groups is another form of privilege.
In contrast, women and people of color
usually see that those above them in the social hierarchy receive
unearned benefits. At the least, they must, for their own protection,
pay attention to what members of more powerful groups think and
do. This is why women often know more about men than men know
about themselves, and why blacks know more about whites than
whites know about themselves.
It is no surprise, then, that foreign
students, especially those from Third World countries, often
know more about the U.S. than most American students do. People
in those countries must, as a matter of survival, pay attention
to what the U.S. does. There is no equally compelling need for
Americans to study what happens in the provinces. And so again
the irony: people in Third World countries often know more about
the U.S. than many Americans do.
We can thus put these at the top of the
list of American privileges: not having to bother, unless one
chooses, to learn about other countries; and not having to bother,
unless one chooses, to learn about how U.S. foreign policy affects
people in other countries. A corollary privilege is to imagine
that if people in other countries study us, it1s merely out of
admiration for our way of life.
The list of American privileges can be
extended. For example, Americans can buy cheap goods made by
superexploited workers in Third World countries; Americans can
take a glib attitude toward war, since it1s likely to be a high-tech
affair affecting distant strangers; and Americans can enjoy freedom
at home, because U.S. capitalists are able to wring extraordinary
profits out of Third World workers and therefore don1t need to
repress U.S. workers as harshly.
But privileges are not without costs.
Most obviously there is the cost of ignorance about others. This
carries with it the cost of ignorance about ourselves.
One thing we don1t learn, when we refuse
to learn about or from others, is how they see us. We then lose
a mirror with which to view ourselves. Combined with power, the
result can be worse than innocent ignorance. It can be smug self-delusion,
belief in the myth of one1s own superiority, and a presumed right
to dictate morality to others.
We also bear the cost of limiting our
own humanity. To be human is to be able to extend compassion
to others, to empathize with them, and to reflect honestly on
how they are affected by our actions. Privilege keeps us from
doing these things and thereby stunts our growth as human beings.
The ignorance that stems from privilege
makes Americans easy to mislead when it comes to war. Being told
that they are 3fighting for freedom,2 and knowing no better,
thousands of American sons and daughters will dutifully kill
and die. The ugly truth that they are fighting for the freedom
of U.S. capitalists to exploit the natural resources and labor
of weaker countries is rarely perceived through the vacuum of
knowledge created by American privilege.
But of course it is the people in those
weaker countries who bear the greatest costs of American privilege.
In war, they will suffer and die in far greater numbers. In peace,
or times of less-violent exploitation, their suffering will continue
and once again become invisible to citizens living at the core
of the empire.
There are positive aspects of American
privilege, and from these we can take hope. Most of us enjoy
freedom from repression in our daily lives, and we value our
rights to associate and to speak out. Perhaps, then, we can appreciate
the anger created when U.S. foreign policy denies other people
these same rights. Perhaps, too, we can use our freedoms to more
fully fight such injustices. If so, then our privileges as Americans
will be put to noble and humane use.
If Americans are often afflicted with
ignorance and moral blindness when it comes to the rest of the
world, this is not a failing of individuals. These problems result
from a system of domination that confers privilege. And so we
can1t make things right simply by declining privilege. In the
long run, we have to dismantle the system that gives it to us.
Michael Schwalbe
teaches sociology at North Carolina State University. He can
be reached at MLSchwalbe@nc.rr.com.
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2002
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