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Apr. 5th, 2022 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineMy aunt is convinced her life has been in no way impacted by systemic privilege because, idk, the family has struggled financially in a rural area at times—not even all times! Just sometimes!
And it's like, okay, she's a (deeply homophobic/transphobic) cishet white (deeply racist) woman from the United States. Her side of the family is almost completely English, so it's not even like, say, the obnoxious Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans or whatnot who go on about how their ancestors just GOT OVER being oppressed (my bio father's family are extremely stereotypical in that regard—lalala what historical complicity—but my mother's/aunt's never experienced any kind of ethnic oppression at all in the US). Her family put her through college. She runs and gets income from the family farm (which neither of her siblings do). She's had her share of suffering, but apart from misogyny and ableism that she herself fully embraces, nothing on the systemic scale. And yet she's absolutely convinced that she has not benefited from this in any way and actually, POC and gay people (in particular) have it better than white/straight people and just need to get over slavery (even if they aren't Black) etc etc.
It's both really common, I guess, and really mind-boggling.
And it's like, okay, she's a (deeply homophobic/transphobic) cishet white (deeply racist) woman from the United States. Her side of the family is almost completely English, so it's not even like, say, the obnoxious Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans or whatnot who go on about how their ancestors just GOT OVER being oppressed (my bio father's family are extremely stereotypical in that regard—lalala what historical complicity—but my mother's/aunt's never experienced any kind of ethnic oppression at all in the US). Her family put her through college. She runs and gets income from the family farm (which neither of her siblings do). She's had her share of suffering, but apart from misogyny and ableism that she herself fully embraces, nothing on the systemic scale. And yet she's absolutely convinced that she has not benefited from this in any way and actually, POC and gay people (in particular) have it better than white/straight people and just need to get over slavery (even if they aren't Black) etc etc.
It's both really common, I guess, and really mind-boggling.