The next step is for them to realize how different statuses can cause people to live the same experiences in opposite ways, and maybe even use their privilege, as she’s done, to bring up issues that would go unheard of if mentioned by someone who doesn’t have it. Furthermore, Gay asserts that the only purpose of attributing privilege to certain individuals should be to allow them to accept it. This way, she proves how nonsensical it is that attributions of privilege are often considered synonymous with accusations of “having it easy”. Gay then discusses her own “peculiar benefits” and disadvantages (like race and gender) and how they have affected her, thus demonstrating her coherently unapologetic view of her own privilege. The point she’s making well underlines how the term “privilege” itself has gained a connotation so negative that it is almost shameful to apply it to the self. After defining privilege and listing different kinds of it, she declares that one of the hardest things to do is to accept your own privilege. In her piece “Peculiar Benefits”, Roxane Gay, an African American feminist writer, effectively analyzes how privilege has had an effect on her life and the role it has gained in today’s society.
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