Understanding Karens: Entitlement and Privilege
Entitled and privileged people don’t realize they are entitled and privileged. Here’s why.
Once upon a time I was both entitled and privileged. That, however, was a very, very long time ago. How I became both privileged and entitled is easy to explain. The bottom line was that it wasn’t my fault — I was socialized that way.
How Privilege Happens
I’ve been back in South Africa for some five years now, and during that time, I’ve seen things with fresh eyes. When one is a nomad, each country that one spends time in adds to one’s overall knowledge of multiple things. So while I think South Africa has improved in many ways, I don’t think it stands much of a chance. Anyway, that’s another story.
Let me tell you about a young white guy — 32 — I met.
He told me that he hated women like me. I was somewhat surprised as I had only known him five minutes. It turned out that he had never finished high school because he had to work in order to support younger brothers and sisters. It also appeared that he couldn’t find work because, in South Africa, there is some sort of law that black people must be considered for the job first. Or rather, that is what I have been told. Affirmative action?
The bottom line is that he lived endlessly in poverty, and women weren’t interested in him because he had neither education nor money. What caught my attention was a sentence he uttered, “I keep being blamed because I’m privileged,” he said.
Him? Privileged?
Not even close.
Just because one is white does not make one privileged.
I was certainly privileged. We had three live-in servants. If I had to go somewhere, I could either take the bus or call my parent’s business and ask for a driver (sometimes the bus didn’t go there).
I attended a posh school that cost the equivalent of an annual middle class salary.
