Unpacking the knapsack of able privilege
by Louise Bailey, Jack Pearpoint and the whole Options team with thanks to Peggy McIntosh
We know that people with labels are oppressed. If some of us are oppressed, it means that others of us are privileged. When we are privileged, we usually don't think of this as privilege - but the norm - how it should be. Just as men have to look at the privileges that arise from sexism, white people the privileges that arise from racism, we who are labelled non-disabled have to be conscious of our own privileged status.
If we think about how privilege plays out in our day-to-day life- here are some sampler observations of how it looks:
- If I make a mistake at work, no one calls my mother.
- I can be pretty sure I won't be stared at or called names in the mall/store.
- After I turned 12, I set my own bedtime.
- When I go to a restaurant, the waiter will ask ME what I want to eat.
- If I go to a doctor or a counsellor, I can assume my confidentiality is respected.
- Other people assume I understand what I'm talking about.
- If I turn up day after day at a workplace to do a job, people assume I'm an employee.
- If I'm out with a non-labelled person, other people assume that's my friend, not my worker or family member.
- My family and school believe in my future and invest in preparing me for a good job.
- It's assumed I'll move out on my own. I get to choose where and with whom I will live.
- It's assumed that I'll bring happiness to my parents.
- I can rebel, protest, and disagree without being labelled mentally ill, in need of medication or behaviour management.
- I can watch TV or a movie without hearing myself called a pejorative name - ie. retard.
- I can watch people like me on TV being portrayed at their best - competent, valued, in-charge, powerful.
- I can do really well without being called an "exception".
- People congratulate me when I say I am pregnant.
- If I go to any workplace, store, etc., I'll see people like me as employees. I'm not expected to work for nothing.
- People don't hesitate to speak to me.
- I can find friends - instead of " activity programs". I get to choose who I want to hang out with.
- People will ask me if I have a relationship.
- I can choose the job I want.
