Recently I have been thinking a lot about privilege. Examining questions such as what is privilege, who has privilege, why do they have privilege, in what ways am I privileged? I find it challenging to step outside of myself and see all the ways that I have power. It can be easy to focus on places where privilege lacks in my life rather than where it is present. Womanhood and gayness color my daily experiences and I’m often aware of how these things impact my daily interactions.

The other day I was walking to the 99 along Commercial and saw a kerfuffle ahead of me. There was a tall, skinny, white, hipster-looking dude yelling at a security guard, “just give me so F@*%ING food! Please!” as he marched past me we made eye contact. His face was red and tears were streaming down his cheeks. His expression haunted me for a lot of the day and brought many of these questions to mind. I am so lucky to not know what being chronically hungry feels like, to be reasonably educated, to have been raised in a relatively loving home, and to have had the opportunities I’ve been privileged with. What can I do with this privilege? Now that I see just how privileged I am I can hopefully help those in need. If I see this man again I have sworn to myself that I will offer him my lunch. Privilege is something we have focused on a lot in this class – mostly in a critical sense. Perhaps we should start looking at where it is present in our own lives and start seeing how we can use it to create and influence positive change.