Inclusion Infusions: Comfort, Power, Privilege

Posted on Thursday, September 19th, 2019

“My theory about power is that you never feel powerful, you only feel comfortable…So I think self-checking means asking ‘Do I feel really comfortable?’ And if I do, I’m probably holding some power that I’m not too aware of”

Dan Taeyoung

If that quote made you pause, I want to make sure you don’t miss a thought provoking documentary released this week on Netflix. “Hello Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea.” One of Chelsea Handler’s opening lines set’s the stage for what she explores in this hour long doc – “I’m clearly the beneficiary of white privilege and I want to know what my personal responsibility is living in the world today, where race is concerned.” This is another opportunity to learn about the experiences of others. (for those of you who are not familiar with Chelsea Handler – her language is not family viewing).

Hopefully that is enough to get you to switch on the TV this weekend, but just in case you miss it here are my favourite insights from the documentary:

  • “Consider the metaphor of the fish in water, who doesn’t know what water is, and if you were to point it out, they wouldn’t know what you were talking about.” Tim Wise
  • “privilege is the opposite of oppression”
  • “The intersection of voting rights with white privilege go very much hand-in-hand.” Chelsea Handler
  • “Racism is lead by ignorance” Jelly Roll
  • “…its when you go to your white job, or when you see your white friends, it’s about advocating in all spaces, even times when it makes you uncomfortable” White People 4 Black Lives
  • “These conversations [about white privilege] need to get messy and need to be uncomfortable. And if we don’t actually get into the messiness and work to build together then we wont actually get to the change that I think is really possible.” Kamau Bell & Rashad Robinson

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