ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Power and Privilege

Updated on April 24, 2015
Google.com
Google.com | Source
Google.com
Google.com | Source
Google.com
Google.com | Source
Google.com
Google.com | Source
Google.com
Google.com | Source
Google.com
Google.com | Source
Coogle.com
Coogle.com | Source
Google.com
Google.com | Source

Power and Privilege: Centennial Woman of Colour

Power – the ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others in one’s favour.

Privilege – a special advantage granted or available to a person or group of people reinforced by society’s morals, values and structures.

Do you possess power or privilege? Does everyone have some level of power and privilege? Should everyone possess power and privilege?

Is power wielded because of privilege or are some wielded by power because they lacked privilege?

How is power manifested? Is power diminished by universalism?

Is privilege earned, inherited or bestowed through connection to power?

Is power relative or absolute or are there continuums of privilege and power?

If privilege and power were spectrums; where would you fall?

What personal characteristics influence the level of power and privilege that is possessed, inherited, earned or wielded?

How do race, class and gender impact the amount of power and or privilege earned, possessed or wielded?

As human beings stripped of all material, biological and geographical boundaries do we possess equal amount of privilege and or power or lack of same?

In death, are privilege and power transferred or are they retained for the afterlife?

Picture this: 1714, North Carolina, USA; Liverpool, England and Port Royal, Jamaica lived a woman of African descent:

How much power and privilege did she hold? Could she wield power or possess, earn, or inherit privilege?

Did she own her body, her thoughts, her children or even the clothes on her back?

Could she influence the actions of those who claimed that they owned her body?

In other words, what power could she wield?

Even if she was a house slave; did she possess privilege?

1814, Montgomery, Alabama, USA; London, England, and Spanish Town, Jamaica lived a woman of African descent:

How was power and privilege implicated for such a woman?

She could be traded; bought and sold like chattel;

Her children could be sold or bartered like the pigs and the cows in the pen;

They were denied the essentials of life even the opportunity of being children.

Who looked out for the interests of her children?

Did she possess, inherit or earn power and privilege?

1914 USA, Britain, Jamaica lived a woman of African descent;

Was she free to exercise full citizenship? The right to vote, freedom to live where the hell she desires?

Was she free to pursue a profession of her choosing or was she stuck in the kitchen and the garden?

Was she free to educate her children to achieve their highest potentials?

Could she vote, pay taxes, run for public office or exercise patriotism for the country she called home?

Did she possess, inherit, and earn power and privilege?

2014 international woman of African descent:

Is she still shackled to the past? Why is she still over-worked, under-paid, marginalized, overlooked, criticized, ignored, passed over for promotion?

Who cares how she feels when she sees her sons being pigeon holed - imprisoned, and killed by those who should protect them?

Who cares how she feels when her daughters are enslaved and denied the opportunity to achieve their potentials?

Can she exercise power and privilege in changing the course of her life or is she rendered powerless and oppressed?

Does she possess, inherit or earn power and privilege? You bet!

2114, woman of African descent:

Will she be completely free of scrutiny, blame, prejudice and stereotypes?

Will she have complete liberation from the gendered/racial division of labour?

Will she be an equal player in the boardroom as well as in parliament/congress?

Will she see her children ‘not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character’?

Will she rest assured that those who serve and protect will indeed do so?

Will she possess, inherit or earn power and privilege? You bet!

Written: December 2014

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)