Pride and Privilege

This photo appeared on my Facebook wall this morning. It has been produced by Conservative Post, a seemingly US-based news outlet whose mission (according to its Facebook page) is ‘to spread Conservative values [presumably US Conservative values] to the world’. Not so long ago, I would have read the captions on this picture and nodded in silent agreement. I wouldn’t deny anyone the right or the opportunity to be ‘proud’ of who they are, but for me—a white, cisgendered, and probably middle-class (with working-class roots, I hasten to add) man—well, I shouldn’t need to be made to feel ashamed of who I am. I should be ‘proud’ to be white, straight, and male! But these days a picture such as this one makes me uncomfortable. This is how I now perceive the background that leads to the expression of this kind of sentiment:

• white people (especially white men) have held positions of power and privilege for centuries;
• the world, for better or for worse, is arguably more aware of difference and alterity these days;
• along with this awareness comes a desire to treat differences equally and/or fairly;
• the elevation (intentional or otherwise) of those who had been in low(er) social positions to high(er) social positions is an effect of this desire;
• those who had been in power (and who, for the most part, are still in power) are now threatened by such social elevation, for it presumes and warrants the sharing of power and privilege;
• and this results in the perceived disenfranchisement of those who are, in reality, still in power.

I don’t know how fair this account is—I suspect that for the Conservative Post and similarly minded folk, this will simply be a laughably unconvincing analysis (though I would want to stress that what I’ve written above is hardly an analysis worthy of the name). But it’s a framework for understanding issues of privilege that makes sense to me. And, of course, it doesn’t just apply to matters of race or ethnicity—it relates to gender, disability, and probably a whole load of other things that I haven’t even noticed, let alone begun to appreciate.

I wanted to write something against this photo and the sentiment it expresses. I can understand it; but these days, I cannot see how the distribution of a captioned photo such as this one helps to promote peace in our fractured world. In my view, Christians, in all their diversity, need to stand against these sorts of attitudes because the body of Christ is not and cannot be homogeneous.