hollowboobtheory:

ok but like. there are two different types of privilege. there’s type a “everybody should have this, but some people don’t” and type b “nobody should have this, but some people do”

there’s having parents who can pay for your application to any college, and then there’s having parents who can bribe your way into any college. there’s owning your own home, and then there’s owning 50 houses and getting rich off hoarding a vital resource. there’s not fearing for your life whenever cops are around, and then there’s being the cop and being allowed to murder anyone at any time.

idk i just feel like that’s an important distinction to make.

very important distinction.

also (not the same thing, but also related to different ideas of what “privilege” is)

there are things that are, legally speaking, privileges and not rights (you can buy a car if you can afford it, but otherwise you are not guaranteed one by law as a human right).

and there are things that are legally rights, but privilege still factors in to whether you have access to them.

remembering when I saw some article catastrophizing about “look how many people in this study answered wrong to the question about whether voting is a right or a privilege”

…and presenting it as if this was a failure of civics education… instead of a shift in common usage of the word “privilege,” and a very real tendency toward things that are legally rights falling into that category.