Privilege (heterosexual and others)

I am writing this blog entry in response to all the comments I received on facebook when I updated my status to indicate that I was annoyed by heterosexual privilege. Frankly, the comments surprised me but I guess I should not have been. Inherently, when one is in receipt of a societal privilege they may not be aware of it. This appears to be the case. Rather than going into a long drawn out explanation of heterosexual privilege I will refer you to an excellent blog entry written by Teh Portly Dyke. She does an excellent job explaining this and its impact on homosexuals. She also issues a challenge in her entry I encourage you to try it to gain a better understanding of how insidious heterosexual privilege is in our society.

Privilege is everywhere in our society and depending on your class, race, economic status or gender expression you may or may not enjoy privilege. Being Caucasian in our society affords you a great deal of privilege. Our society is geared to make life easier for people who are white. All of our institutions are inherently racist and difficult for people of colour to navigate and receive fair treatment. If you don’t believe me ask a person of colour what their experience is at a bank or worse trying to get welfare or other government services. When I worked in a downtown eastside welfare office in Vancouver there was a great deal of racism dished out to people of colour and particularly aboriginal people.

Class is another area of privilege. I certainly noticed that as a homeowner I am treated very differently by service people than I was when i was a renter. The white woman in Kerrisdale is treated much differently than an Aboriginal woman from the downtown eastside. Many of our judgements about class are rooted in the Protestant work ethic and Protestantism in general. One of the foremost Protestant thinkers, John Calvin, believed that it was predetermined who was going to heaven and who was not. Those people who were successful in life were assumed to be going to heaven and therefore treated differently from those who were impoverished. It was also believed that if those who were not successful ‘just tried a little harder’ they too could be successful. The old adage of ‘pulling up their boot straps’ applied. We may not consciously think this way but these ideas inform our culture and the way we view the world and the people in it.

Gender expression is another area of privilege. Those who fit into society’s binary gender roles of male and female enjoy privilege. There is no question which bathroom to use and you are treated with respect. Those who are gender queer, gender ambiguous or trans have murky waters to navigate. A male to female transsexual for example may be harassed for using the woman’s bathroom. Gender expression seems to invoke violent responses from some people. Many trans people are routinely targeted for abuse by people in our society who are uncomfortable with their gender expression.

It is interesting to talk to people who are different from you and to learn how privilege or the lack thereof impacts their lives. As a white woman I know that I enjoy a fair amount of privilege in our society. I have privileges of class, race and gender. However, somethings work against me. As a fat lesbian woman I have been the target of discrimination and hate although not that often. The group with the most privilege in our society are straight, white men. It is interesting to determine what privilege you enjoy and why you have it. Deconstructing privilege helps us to understand how our society works and how we can work to be allies to those who do not enjoy the same privileges that we do. It takes a great deal of work to look inside and see what is really there - the racist and classist thoughts and to try and understand how they impact our interactions with other people. It is a life-long process and one that is very difficult. Realizing our own racist, classist and gender biases can be uncomfortable. Talking about them and challenging others racist, classist and gender biases is even more difficult. If, as an individual, you are committed to an egalitarian society it starts with you.

Missing Women Trial

The verdict is in and he has been found guilty of second degree murder in the deaths of Serena Abbotsway, Mona Wilson, Georgina Papin, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wilson and Marnie Frey. It is a great disappointment that he was not found guilty of first degree murder for at least one of the women. The difference between first and second degree murder is one of intent and planning, surely after 3 or 4 murders there must be intent and planning to continue killing.

I also seriously doubt that he acted alone. All of the stories that abound on the Downtown Eastside about “parties” at “piggies palace” indicate that others likely participated in the abuse and ultimately the murder of women who died on that lonely Port Coquitlam pig farm.

We are now five years since his arrest. There has been no improvement for women on the Downtown Eastside. Many still must work in the survival sex trade where they literally take their lives into their hands. Our women deserve better. If only the level of outrage at the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport. Where are the demands for a public inquiry or a coroner’s inquest for at least one of the missing women? What is it going to take for us, as a society, to not see women as throw away members of society. We must do better.

My only hope is that the second trial continues. The families of those women deserve to know the truth. Perhaps if the truth about the murder of a further 20 women is exposed things will change.

Margaret Willie and the Pivot Legal Society

Today a Native Elder, who lives on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, received justice. It came from Small Claims Court in Vancouver. Margaret Willie was coming out of Army and Navy when she was approached by a member of the Vancouver Police Department. She was informed that this officer had been ‘watching’ her the previous night (Margaret had been playing Bingo at the time the officer supposedly saw her away from the DTES) and the officer proceeded to search her by taking off her coat, patting her down and then going through her purse. What did the officer find - some sudafed and aspirin. In her defence, the officer said that she had observed Ms. Willie talking to some ‘known drug dealers’ in front of a convenience store the previous evening and she suspected that Ms. Willie was ‘carrying.’ Well, Margaret Willie was not carrying. She did not even know what this term meant.

After being traumatized, Margaret engaged the help of the Pivot Legal Society who regularly helps residents of the Downtown Eastside when their legal rights are trampled. The VPD seems to feel that it is ok to suspend legal and constitutional rights on the DTES while they try to root out the drug problem. I guess it is our very own Gitmo.

Margaret was not seeking money when she decided to take her case to court. She just wanted to clear her name. The judge in the case stated that Margaret’s rights had been violated, she had been illegally detained and searched without just cause. She was given a $5500 award. She has been in counselling ever since this event as it traumatized her and activated childhood memories of similar abuses of power she endured.

Adding insult to injury, Margaret was interviewed on the CBC today. It was one of the most mean-spirited interviews I have ever heard. Basically the interviewer seemed to be blaming Ms. Willie because, after all, she does live on the DTES and the police are justified in trying to clean up the drug problems plaguing the area. The interviewer asked her why she was afraid of the police and then tried to get her to agree that the VPD’s actions were justified given the intractable drug dealing in the area. Margaret did not agree with her. In fact, Margaret seemed more aftraid of the police than of the criminal element in her neighbourhood. The interviewer seemed oblivious to Margaret’s pain.

Sadly, people who live on the DTES regularly endure this kind of treatment. As John Richardson from the Pivot Legal Society pointed out, law enforcement is done very differently in the DTES. Police actions which are normal for that area would not be tolerated anywhere else in Vancouver, BC or the country as a whole.

Shame on the VPD for targeting people this way.