[lbo-talk] Check your privilege?

[Carrol Cox]

I think I've got a metaphor dramatizing the difference between _privilege_
and _rights_. In Rumania, in Hungary, in Austria, & in Germany, there was at
least one waitress or waiter who understood and spoke _some_ English. In the
railway station in Budapest we encountered a porter who spoke English, & he
found us a taxi-driver who spoke English.

I doubt that speakers of Farsi, Estonian, or Arabic would have been so
lucky.

Now, no one has the _right_ to find English speakers in Budapest; it is a
pleasant privilege to have, however, and I think it is a privilege 'gained'
by over two centuries of imperialist aggression by Anglos. An note, there is
no way 'we' can reject that privilege -- and if we did somehow it would gain
no advantage for speakers of Arabic going into a Budapest restaurant. 

Now, it is _not_ a privilege but a _right_ for any of us to walk into a
government office and be served by someone who speaks English. It OUGHT to
be a right of any Spanish-speaker in the U.S. to find Spanish speakers in
government offices, courts, etc. Surrendering the _right_ (not privilege) of
Anglos to speak English in Court would not help Spanish speakers. We should,
if we are serious leftists, join with Spanish speakers to make Spanish in
addition to English an official language in the U.S. -- but "checking" our
right, not privilege, to speak English in court would not help that
struggle.

Now -- _every_ resident (not merely every citizen) of the U.S. should have
the RIGHT to walk down a street (anywhere) at (say) 1a.m. and not get shot
or roughed up or hassled (stop and frisk)ed). It is NOT a privilege, but it
is a Right. For whites to surrender that right would not in any way help
Black and Brown people.

And so forth.

The renunciation of Privilege by one group, even if possible, would not help
those who are deprived of it.

Carrol

P.S. Let me repeat one point: However technically inaccurate the slogan may
be, the slogan "Fight Racism" must be a core slogan of the U.S. left; in our
practice we must concretize it.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of Doug Henwood
> Sent: Friday, August 16, 2013 1:37 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Check your privilege?
> 
> 
> On Aug 16, 2013, at 2:32 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> > I don't quite get this "check your privilege" business.
> 
> We've solved this one on Facebook!
> ___________________________________
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