Privilege Revealed

In America, I often hear the terms "the privileged" and "the oppressed" - especially since I engage in many readings, videos and classes that talk about social justice and the like. I often fall in the latter group when thinking of my own identities, such as gender, class, and race. There cannot be a privileged group without an oppressed group - that's history.

Coming to Ghana has shaped my perspective in a sense. For the first time, I am witnessing a privilege that I never realized I had - my privilege as an American. As an American, I enjoy the privilege of running/safe water, a flushing toilet, phenomenal infrastructure in my home, on the road, in office buildings, schools and libraries. Most revealing, I enjoy the privilege of being from a nation that holds hegemonic power in the world...a place that ranks its way of life as the epitome of society. I have privilege.

I think one of the most important parts of privilege is recognizing it. Afterwards, understanding it and figuring out a way/action plan to avoid it oppressing others. I am very happy that I studied the courses that I did before coming here - especially my sociology and africana studies courses. It shaped me to become more socially and culturally aware of myself and others around me. Being culturally sensitive to the way of life of many Ghanians, kept me from completely submitting to an ethnocentric perspective and lowering their way of life to my own. An American can easily come here or a place like it and show pity...show pity for the people who live here and their way of life. However, there has been more of an understanding within my own thinking. An understanding that the way of life that I am used to and that most Americans are used to is not the only way to live, and we are not somehow superior and everyone else inferior due to this unique way of life.

For many Americans, we get caught up in measuring someone's happiness based on the material things they possess and on their economic capital; however, bringing this frame of mind to Ghana can quickly lead to ethnocentrism. I could give a definition of happiness, but instead will tell you what I saw. Of course everyone is not always happy...but there is something else that comes into place: gratefulness, thanksgiving. As I rode on the bus, I saw people: people who smiled, people who laughed, people who did not smile, children who played, children who argued, families and friends who sat together and talked; I saw businesswomen and businessmen, I saw schoolchildren, I saw people. I didn't see a people to be pitied, but a community...I saw a community.

Written on July 24, 2013