[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/opinion-time-to-de-weaponise-the-term-privilege\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/opinion-time-to-de-weaponise-the-term-privilege\/","headline":"Opinion: Time to de-weaponise the term \u201cprivilege\u201d","name":"Opinion: Time to de-weaponise the term \u201cprivilege\u201d","description":"Remember the saying, \u201cSticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me\u201d? Well, not any more. In what has been described as an \u201cembattled age\u201d, anything can be turned into a weapon, including words. Once it is out there, it is difficult to take back the words that have been \u201cweaponised\u201d, […]","datePublished":"2022-02-19","dateModified":"2022-04-16","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/tony-goh\/#Person","name":"Tony Goh","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/tony-goh\/","identifier":398,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_3588-copy-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_3588-copy-100x100.jpg","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/WeaponizePrivilege_NYT.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/WeaponizePrivilege_NYT.jpg","height":900,"width":1600},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/opinion-time-to-de-weaponise-the-term-privilege\/","about":["Community","Local","Race","Singapore"],"wordCount":2069,"articleBody":"Remember the saying, \u201cSticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me\u201d? Well, not any more. In what has been described as an \u201cembattled age\u201d, anything can be turned into a weapon, including words.Once it is out there, it is difficult to take back the words that have been \u201cweaponised\u201d, especially incendiary ones that foster hate.\u00a0What is privilege?Social privilege, or just \u201cprivilege\u201d for short, refers to certain social advantages, benefits, or degrees of prestige and respect that an individual has by virtue of belonging to certain social identity groups.According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word privilege is defined as an advantage that only one person or group of people has because of their position in the community or because they are rich. The term was initially used to pick out forms of unfairness that people would like to address and seek solutions to.But in today\u2019s era of unrestrained woke-ism, anger rules the day. Fingers are pointed in all directions and lines drawn. People are arbitrarily forced into binary groups, seen as \u201cwith us\u201d or \u201cagainst us\u201d.Those who are unfortunate enough to be on the other side are dehumanised, stripped of all their thoughts and emotions, and seen as nothing more than an embodiment of everything that is wrong with the world.Instead of a genuine attempt to find real solutions to real problems, the term has now become weaponised, shutting down conversations and invalidating the other party, simply because \u201cthey have it better\u201d.\u00a0A professor of English at Skidmore College Robert Boyers, summed up the use of the term as the modern day\u2019s weapon of choice.\u00a0“The charge of \u201cprivilege\u201d is usually directed at its targets not with the prospect of enlisting them in some plausible action to combat injustice but instead to signal the accuser\u2019s membership in the party of the virtuous. Accusations of \u201cprivilege\u201d have become a form of one-upmanship, and a charge against which there is no real defence.”To be clear, my piece is not denying the existence of the advantages that are only accorded to certain groups of people. The advantages can come in different forms, sometimes conferring one with better opportunities in life. Other times, it can be as simple as being free from discrimination when it comes to jobs and housing.\u00a0On the contrary, I am recognising the inequities in society and take the view that the utmost priority is to find solutions to them, instead of engaging in hollow rhetoric.Weaponising the term \u201cprivilege\u201d as a means to shut people down and pit them against each other only serves to raise tensions unnecessarily and create further divisions.\u00a0A case in point would be when former US President Donald Trump incited hatred by creating divisions between his supporters and opponents, resulting in the attack on the US Capitol Building.\u00a0Attack on the US Capitol Building. (Photo Source: Al Jazeera)According to Dr Shaun R. Harper, the Clifford and Betty Allen Professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center, the storming of the US Capitol was a case study in white privilege.He expressed his shock as he watched televised news coverage of hundreds of people storming and overtaking the Capitol in January 2021 and how boldly they flooded one of the highest-security buildings in Washington DC.Founding editor of ESPN Magazine and its former vice president Roxanne Jones wrote, \u201cTo be Black in America is to live with constant trauma. For Trump and many in the Republican party who seem more interested in taking America to the brink of a civil war for personal political gain rather than holding our nation together, the Lafayette Park protesters were criminals of the worst kind.\u201dAs a result, society ends up moving further away from real solutions.If we truly want to shape the society we live and work in into a more equitable one, everyone, regardless of how \u201cprivileged\u201d he or she is, can and should be part of the solution.The \u201cChinese privilege\u201d in Singapore and the problem with viewing Chinese Singaporeans as homogenousRacial Harmony Day in Singapore. (Photo Source: Public Service Division)There are many forms of \u201cprivileges\u201d in Singapore, but for the sake of this argument, I am focusing on one of the most contentious ones, \u201cChinese privilege\u201d.The weaponisation of the word \u201cprivilege\u201d started with \u201cwhite privilege\u201d in the United States (US). It is a concept that highlights the unfair societal advantages that white people, who are the majority, have over people of colour. It is something that is pervasive throughout the society in the US and exists in all of the major systems and institutions that operate there, as well as on an interpersonal level.This idea that the majority race enjoys certain privileges made its way to Singapore, where at 75 per cent of the population, ethnic Chinese Singaporeans are seen as the equivalent of the whites in the US.Although the Government and academics have warned against seeing Chinese privilege as the local equivalent of American white privilege due to the vast differences in history and racial relations, the concept has, nonetheless, taken root here.However, it is overly simplistic to categorise all Chinese Singaporeans as one and the same. In reality, not all Chinese enjoy \u201cChinese privilege\u201d. On 22 January, president of the youth wing in the Workers\u2019 Party Nicole Seah posted her thoughts on Chinese privilege on her Facebook page after having done an interview with CNA.Ms Seah admitted that Chinese privilege exists but it is also dangerous to fall back on such labels \u201cbecause sometimes it hurts the conversation\u201d. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s really not a matter of like \u2018oh, this person has Chinese privilege\u2019, but it could be that that person is just individually a really nasty person. Let\u2019s just focus on having a more honest conversation about what we need to do better as a people,\u201d she wrote.\u00a0As Minister Lawrence Wong highlighted, \u201cit is important to realise that the Chinese community in Singapore is not monolithic\u201d, before adding,\u201cWe still have a whole generation of Chinese Singaporeans who are more comfortable in Chinese than English, and who consider themselves at a disadvantage in an English-speaking world.They feel that they have already given up much to bring about a multi-racial society; Chinese-language schools, Nanyang University, dialects, and so on.What do you mean by \u2018Chinese privilege?\u2019 they will ask, for they do not feel privileged at all. Naturally, many of them would object to being so characterised.\u201dMr Wong did acknowledge, however, the presence of \u201cbiases or blind spots that the Chinese community should become aware of and to rectify\u201d.So, is there really a Chinese privilege in Singapore?The answer from the Government is no. At the National Day Rally speech in 2021, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke out publicly to deny the existence of Chinese privilege in Singapore:It is \u201centirely baseless\u201d to claim that there is \u201cChinese privilege\u201d in Singapore, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday (Aug 29), noting that Singapore treats \u201call races equally, with no special privileges\u201d.Other public figures, including actor Tay Peng Hui, shared that having grown up in a Mandarin-speaking home and with 90 per cent of his friends being Chinese up till when he served National Service, he was \u201cvery comfortable, with everyone around me Chinese\u201d. I thought I probably didn’t need to know about the other races. It doesn’t mean that I had Chinese privilege, but I must acknowledge I had a majority blind spot,” he said.It was only after Tay experienced racism when he was abroad did he realise how minorities in Singapore must feel.Yes, there is discriminationThe reason for calling out \u201cChinese privilege\u201d largely stems from the discrimination that minority races face in their daily lives.\u00a0Despite reciting \u201cregardless of race, language and religion\u201d in the Singapore pledge every day since we were five, racial discrimination still exists, sometimes blatantly.Racial discrimination in the rental market. (Photo Source: Mothership)Racial discrimination in the rental market. (Photo Source: 99.co)One of the ways racial discrimination manifests itself is choosing where we live. It has been a longstanding issue that some Chinese homeowners outrightly express a preference for renting to \u201ca particular race\u201d.There are stories on ethnic minorities enquiring about renting or showing up for a viewing. They are usually told by property agents that they are unable to proceed. The owner had refused to rent the unit because of their race.Although not all homeowners practice this discrimination, it is still an ongoing problem.Racial bias in the employment market. (Photo Source: pandemicsurvivor2020 \/ Reddit)Another area where racism rears its ugly head is in job recruitment. Ethnic minorities have long complained about the difficulties during job searches, with some employers preferring to hire people of Chinese ethnicity, or Chinese speakers.While it is understandable that some jobs require proficiency in certain languages due to operational needs, it is not a must for most other jobs.\u00a0Besides, ethnicity has nothing to do with a person\u2019s capabilities at work and should not be a deciding factor in whether he or she gets the job.The problem with framing discrimination as privilegeRacial discrimination is wrong and needs to be addressed, but it would be counterproductive to frame this injustice as a \u201cprivilege\u201d for several reasons.1) Obstacles to having inclusive conversationsWhenever my acquaintance Emily\u2019s close friend, who is Indian, complains about being discriminated against in her job searches, she would try to comfort her or to understand about her friend\u2019s predicament, only to be met with a you-wouldn\u2019t-understand-because-you-are-Chinese reply.Also, coming from a well-to-do family, there are also times when people not-so-subtly \u201cremind\u201d Emily of her \u201cprivileged\u201d position in life.\u00a0That same friend also lamented that she had to fix her old oven that had broken down, before adding that Emily would not understand because of her wealthy background.\u00a0And this is what happens when the word \u201cprivilege\u201d is weaponised, resulting in a stand-off and the opportunity to understand each other better and to offer solutions is lost.2) Creating a guilt-complex and encouraging the blame gameAnother of my friends, Mildred, thinks that there has been too much hype about \u201cprivilege\u201d.\u201cIt forces people to over-examine themselves, and suddenly everything becomes a privilege \u2014 being Chinese, being a graduate, even owning a car\u201d, says the lecturer in her late-thirties.She goes on to question what the definition of privilege is and who gets to decide before adding that the term has become a tool to shut people down, judge others, and to create divisions between those who are arbitrarily defined to be on opposing sides.\u00a0However, Mildred acknowledges that the term \u201cprivilege\u201d is beneficial if used appropriately as \u201cit enables people to reflect\u201d. \u201cBut when it is overused, it loses this effect and instead becomes a blanket label to criticise people and policies,\u201d she adds.\u00a0Finally, she feels that the weaponisation of the term might have something to do with the \u201cwoke\u201d generation, as many terms have now become \u201cvery loaded\u201d.3) Discrimination-free treatment is a basic human decency, not a privilegeAs a society we should expect to be treated in a manner free of discrimination and that should be a norm, and not a privilege.\u00a0One danger of framing basic human decency as a \u201cprivilege\u201d is it relegates being treated fairly as a \u201cbonus\u201d and becomes something that has to be \u201cearned\u201d In my opinion, basic human decency should be a universal right accorded to all human beings, as with all other universal human rights.\u00a0The other danger of weaponising\u00a0 the term \u201cprivilege\u201d is that it sets the tone that those who are privileged are undeserving.\u00a0\u00a0The intuitive thinking in such a narrative then, would be to strip the privileged of their \u201cundeserved entitlements\u201d.Civil servant Devi, 29, offers a balanced view after having received the short end of the racial stick for years.\u00a0 She says some minorities\u00a0 have developed a mistrust against those perceived as perpetrators of the injustice and \u201cif people in privileged positions want to help, there is still the need to first build trust before we can all be on the same page to start discussing solutions\u201d.Join the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia\u2019s\u00a0Facebook\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram, and get the latest updates via\u00a0Telegram."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Opinion: Time to de-weaponise the term \u201cprivilege\u201d","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/opinion-time-to-de-weaponise-the-term-privilege\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]