privilege

meaning "private law," privilege comprises the covert and overt benefits or immunities that society grants certain individuals based solely on their social standing. An obvious example is the judicial outcome of a wealthy white embezzler with a well-paid lawyer compared to the outcome for a poor Black thief with a court-appointed lawyer. People who can afford to put up bail are in a more advantageous position as are those who can afford to fly in expert witnesses. Although we are all in some sense born equal, some people are more privileged than others. At the top of a list of privileges would be wealth (which depends on other, prior privileges such as family, whiteness, inheritance, education, social status, powerful networks, etc.). Greta Christina (AlterNet) says, "I am privileged as a white person, a college-educated person, a middle-to-upper-middle class person, a more or less able bodied person, an American. I am marginalized as a woman, a queer, a bisexual, a fat person, an atheist." Check your writing and speaking for unconscious privilege bias, assuming, for example, that an activity or a profession or a reference is familiar to or even possible for your audience. Along with the unearned benefits of privilege goes the stigma that the privileged are somehow better. Examine your words for the subtle creation of hierarchies when speaking of people. See also male privilege, white privilege.