Does Your Privilege Is Showing By Susanna Shrobsdorff Summary

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Does your privilege show? Privilege indicates a person possesses a special right or has an advantage over others. It’s defined by societal standards and often associated with wealth. In her article, Whose Privilege is Showing?, Susanna Schrobsdorff begins by describing her job as a teenager. She worked as a nursing home aide. Now, her teen daughters describe her as privileged because of her lifestyle in Brooklyn. Although, she admits she had advantages in life, Susanna still tells her daughters the nursing home stories. Why? The term privilege agitates people because they feel it requires proof of authenticity to others or it’s unearned. An example is the presidential elections, each candidate tries to prove how they earned their …show more content…

Instead of glorifying the term “privilege” regarding their education at the college, she used the opportunity to inform the graduates that their education hampered them. Then she went on to explain how privilege blinds us. It doesn’t allow us to look at people and situations in the proper manner. Furthermore, Chimamanda gave advice about privilege by stating, “Don’t let it blind you too often. Sometimes you will need to push it aside to see clearly,”(Sehgal p. 15). This is a wise suggestion because sometimes people don’t realize how their privileges take control of their …show more content…

Francis. This story touched my life last year when I traveled to Italy. St. Francis was born to a wealthy merchant in Assisi. Similar to Buddha, he belonged to a royal family and received a good education. He displayed the characteristics of his privileged class, such as fine clothes, wit, and a courteous manner. It wasn’t until St. Francis was a prisoner of war that he realized that his life was empty. It was through his dreams that he returned to Assisi and longed for a spiritual life. St. Francis embraced a poor leper by giving him all his money. After he make a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis returned and his life was changed when he prayed in front of a crucifix and heard a voice. The voice told him to repair the Church. St. Francis pushed aside all of his privileges that were blinding him in his life, and he cleared the way when he left his possessions to do God’s

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