Watch Out For the Humble Brag!
The Ivy League is filled with professors who talk about “white privilege” or “male privilege” or “white male privilege.” This has become a $9 billion dollar industry. So a lot of people are (obviously) seeing a way to profit from this.
I was taught, when I was little, by the genius known as Dr.Seuss. And I would just urge all of us not to be ripped off by Sylvester McMonkey McBean.
I have seen white males who are homeless, living on the street, and addicted to meth. What I like to do is roll down the window of my BMW and berate them for belonging to a privileged class. No, wait. I don’t do that at all!
You know what’s actually a “signal” of privilege? Money. So if you want to talk to your students about “privilege,” talk to them about money. You might start off your conversation by admitting how much money you make.
“Hi, I am Professor Green. I am privileged. I made $165,000 last year.”
Now you are talking about your status in the privileged class! And you are revealing something that a lot of people keep hidden. That’s because actual privilege can cause resentment in people who are not privileged.
It’s probably a horrible idea to go around in public talking about how much money you make. Why reduce your humanity to a dollar amount? But if you are Woke and you want to reduce yourself to your privileged status, might I suggest some tattoo ideas?
You can tattoo your salary for 2022 somewhere on your body. And at the end of 2023, you can add another tattoo illustrating all the money you made this year. Over the next 60 years, you can add 60 tattoos, each representing your annual income. This will be nice and helpful for the rest of us, as we all can track how privileged you are. The IRS would appreciate it too.
Money is a nice thing to have in this world. It gives us options. Jesus had a job and was paid a wage. He also had a sex and a skin color. What I deduce from this is that it’s not a sin to earn money at a job. Nor is it a sin to be born white, or black, or yellow, or red. Nor is it a sin to be born male or female.
We are all privileged to be alive! Accept that truth and be happy.