You know how it is. Youre enjoying yourself, kicking back and relaxing at the pub or maybe at the library; or maybe youre in class or just casually surfing the internet, indulging in a little conversation. The topic of the conversation is about a pertinent contemporary issue, probably something to do with a group of people who fall outside your realm of experience and identity. Theyre also probably fairly heavily discriminated against or so they claim.
The thing is, youre having a good time, sharing your knowledge about these people and their issues. This knowledge is incontrovertible its been backed up in media representation, books, research and lots and lots of historical events, also your own unassailable sense of being right.
Yet all of a sudden something happens to put a dampener on your sharing of your enviable intellect and incomparable capacity to fully perceive and understand All Things. Its someone who belongs to the group of people youre discussing and theyre Not Very Happy with you. Apparently, they claim, youve got it all wrong and theyre offended about that. They might be a person of colour, or a queer person. Maybe theyre a woman, or a person with disability. They could even be a trans person or a sex worker. The point is theyre trying to tell you they know better than you about their issues and you know thats just plain wrong. How could you be wrong?
Dont worry though! There IS something you can do to nip this potentially awkward and embarrassing situation in the bud. By simply derailing the conversation, dismissing their opinion as false and ridiculing their experience you can be sure that they continue to be marginalised and unheard and you can continue to look like the expert you know you really are, deep down inside!
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE PRIVILEGE!
Just follow this step-by-step guide to Conversing with Marginalised People and in no time at all you will have a fool-proof method of derailing every challenging conversation you may get into, thus reaping the full benefits of every privilege that you have.
The best part is, you dont even have to be a white, heterosexual, cisgendered, cissexual, upper-class male to enjoy the full benefits of derailing conversation! Nope, you can utilise the lesser-recognised tactic of Horizontal Hostility to make sure that, despite being a member of a Marginalised Group yourself, you can exercise a privilege another Marginalised Group doesnt have in order not to heed their experience!
