Understanding Privilege

We all have privilege in one way or another. Acknowledging and understanding our privilege is a big step in creating a culture of inclusion, equity, and justice within our organizations. This collection of content focuses our attention on the ways in which privilege impacts our society and the way we operate within it, how certain privileges create unfair advantages and disadvantages in the workplace, and little, often-overlooked ways that privilege permeates common social and linguistic norms. Only after understanding privilege can we work to dismantle its harmful effects and begin to foster a better workplace environment for all.

The standards of professionalism, according to American grassroots organizer-scholars Tema Okun and Keith Jones, are heavily defined by white supremacy culture—or the systemic, institutionalized centering of whiteness. In the workplace, white supremacy culture explicitly and implicitly privileges whiteness and discriminates against non-Western and non-white professionalism standards related to dress code, speech, work style, and timeliness.

Excerpt from Stanford Social Innovation Review on The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards

Although these words and phrases are obviously harmful to the groups they marginalise, non-disabled people who casually use ableist language may be negatively impacting themselves, too.

Excerpt from BBC article on The harmful ableist language you unknowingly use