People tend to think that the situation that they grew up in is normal or at least expected.
expected is different than "normal". and "normal" isn't just based on personal experience, but knowledge of how most other people view the situation. people who are minorities grow up with their minority status, but they know what society views as "normative". "normal" is primarily constructed in terms of society for the most part, and much of the concept of "normal/normative/norm" is internalized - even by minorities even as they know from personal experience that "normal" is not the only way the world work, or the way they expect the world to work.
All of that said, if you state that 'if you have privilege you will always act from that privilege and acting from privilege means not thinking about it and making an unconscious acquiescence to "how things are (supposed) to be"' then it sounds to me that you are saying that if I am [privilege class] that I am unable to think outside of that privilege class and thus cannot have any valid contributions/opinions on [subject related to said privilege class].
that's a very fine parsing of what i wrote.
do you really think i intend to say that people are not capable of thinking outside of privilege? or cannot make a valid contribution? if so, why would i even bother opening my mouth - no possible good could come of it.
when you have privilege you will eventually act from it. you are not limited to it, but there is no one i know of who has escaped from their various privileges. this doesn't mean you can't improve the situation wrt privilege.
the line of argument that says follows along, "don't condemn me because of my privilege" is wrong on two fronts. first, pointing out privilege isn't condemnation. second, functionally it turns into a kind of "i don't have privilege/i'm not a bad person".
(no subject)
do you really think i intend to say that people are not capable of thinking outside of privilege? or cannot make a valid contribution? if so, why would i even bother opening my mouth - no possible good could come of it.
when you have privilege you will eventually act from it. you are not limited to it, but there is no one i know of who has escaped from their various privileges. this doesn't mean you can't improve the situation wrt privilege.
the line of argument that says follows along, "don't condemn me because of my privilege" is wrong on two fronts. first, pointing out privilege isn't condemnation. second, functionally it turns into a kind of "i don't have privilege/i'm not a bad person".