The problem with privilege

My wish for 2025 is to end the power of privilege. Everywhere around us, we see structural and psychological privilege forced in our faces.

The havoc privilege has caused and continues to cause is beyond calculation. My late mother, as recent as 2015, would still be anxious about social gatherings at our home and would ask: “Gaan daar wit mense wees?” (Will there be white people in attendance?)

Her anxiety stemmed from years as an exploited domestic worker in the suburbs.

Psychologist Valerie Tarico states that “unless we are able to see the advantages we have been given – often unearned and conferred simply by the circumstances of our birth – we are quick to take credit for our successes and blame others for their failings.”

Concepts like white privilege implies that “white people – for the most part – are exempt from hardships caused by racism and, in fact, that light skin colour often confers advantages” that might not be earned. Unearned privilege is a cancer that launches arrows called arrogance into every crevice of human existence. Tarico refers to this as “righteous superiority”.

Male, academic, political and cultural superiority all collude to create this notion of unquestioned righteous superiority. When person X says it, we do not dare question it. Not only are they presumed to be right, but they are also self-endowed with righteous arrogance.

However, a simple inversion of privilege is as bad as maintaining privilege. It simply translates into “it’s our turn to eat.” These self-serving distortions, Tarico says, create new problems, because simply putting the bottom at the top and the top at the bottom, does not indicate that we have dealt with the problem of privilege.

There should always be room for personal or group ambition and for recognition of endeavour. There should be a celebration of achievement. But ambition, endeavour and celebration must be clearly understood as distinct from unearned merit and righteous superiority. Our political landscape is littered with utterances of unchecked privilege posing as insightful wisdom. For example, you can point to many instances of the failure of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment practices in South Africa. However, using that failure to maintain your privilege is wrong.

The Government of National Unity must lead in undoing this poisonous culture of privilege in South Africa. When I hear how every dignitary in the room must be mentioned by name before a speech is delivered, I fear that we have rapidly descended into the privilege trap. Our politics, cultures and economics need to be set free from constraints to create an energy and intelligence that will reposition South Africa as a safe and healthy beacon of humble intelligence and rapid inclusive growth, for the continent and for the developing world.

We need to take collective steps to undo our own privilege – of race, religion, culture, politics and economics. We must gift to the nation a version of ourselves that is willing to build, trade and endeavour so that we will see South Africa prospering. We should no longer ignore the poisonous trajectory that the privileged positions of race, religion, culture, politics, or economics continue to foist on South Africa.

The problem with privilege is that it impedes progress, because progress will only be allowed ‘if it protects my privilege.’ We have witnessed 372 years of such stupidity, under all our forms of government.

* Lorenzo A. Davids is a leader and veteran in the social development space who has worked for decades to address SA’s stark inequities.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

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