Opinion

Bimpe Archer: Privilege is a precious gift that needs to be appreciated, and shared

Does Boris Johnson recognise himself as being privileged? Picture by Hugh Russell.
Does Boris Johnson recognise himself as being privileged? Picture by Hugh Russell. Does Boris Johnson recognise himself as being privileged? Picture by Hugh Russell.

HOW do you know if you have privilege?

Most people don’t feel privileged. Why would they when the world’s richest one per cent own 45 per cent of the planet’s wealth?

That means even if the rest was split evenly every other one per cent would only own 0.5 per cent.

Spoiler alert: It’s not split evenly.

Most people think of that one per cent when they think of privilege – the Rolex watches, supercars, the mega yachts, the McMansions, private islands. They think of poise, elegance and immaculate beauty.

Perhaps that explains why so many didn’t see privilege when they looked at a dishevelled and apparently bumbling Boris Johnson as he travelled round the country canvassing during the election campaign and duly gave him their vote.

Or perhaps they handed him the keys to Number 10 Downing Street because, despite themselves, they did see privilege.

Soothed by the carefully curated 'man of the people’ persona, unthreatened by the 'last one picked on sports day’ physique and the studied inarticulacy of his speeches, they could surrender to a more palatable face of the long-established natural order of leadership and the safety net of public school and Oxford education.

That’s one aspect of privilege, it compels the submission of others with an inherent assumption of superiority.

But if there is a superior there must always be an inferior or the concept would be meaningless.

Do people look at the amiable morning TV presenter and see privilege? After all there is no bling or the designer threads signalling membership of the one per cent club. Could privilege possibly lurk amid high street fashion and amiable bantz?

What else but privilege disguised as chummy amiability could explain why viewers tune in to be patronised for three hours every day?

But what about the happily married couple who don’t see what same-sex marriage has to do with them or why they should sign a petition supporting it? They’re working night and day to save for a house deposit – where is the privilege in that?

And the teenager who throws a banana skin or does a monkey chant at a complete stranger whose skin is a different colour to theirs? What link could there be between their minimum wage existence and the world’s oligarchs?

To adapt a phrase: 'The greatest trick privilege ever pulled was convincing the world it doesn’t exist’.

It masquerades as its opposite, by setting up the one per cent as a straw man to allow other versions plausible deniability.

Privilege is so successful at this that even it often doesn’t know that it exists.

The prime minister probably doesn’t think he enjoys it, neither does the TV host, or the heterosexual couple, or the racist bully, or your boss. Or you.

So how do you know if you have privilege when it doesn’t feel as if you do?

Privilege isn’t the land of milk and honey. It’s not a free pass to the good life. It doesn’t necessarily cushion you from pain or hardship – although at its peak it can do all those things.

Privilege is having something that society values which cannot be taken away from you at the whim of another person.

A job is not a privilege, an education is.

Often privilege comes as an accident of birth – being Caucasian in a country that values white lives above all others; being a man living in a patriarchal society; being heterosexual in a country which legislates with you in mind; possessing an approximation of your society’s ideal of beauty; living in a developed country; belonging to a wealthy family.

There is no need to be ashamed of privilege to whatever degree you possess it.

Privilege is a precious gift. Recognise it, appreciate it, own it.

And then fight to make sure others can share it.

Just because it wasn’t earned doesn’t mean it can’t be repaid.