Issues of Privilege

The first time I took a First Nations literature class I was presented with a very difficult and heavy issue. We were given an article written by the leader of an anti-violence Native women’s group. In the article she recounts an incident where two trans-women attend her woman's only event and she asked them to leave. The event in question was a meeting aimed at discussing issues of violence against Native Women, especially the homeless.

Growing up in an environment that taught utter toleration and acceptance, I couldn't understand why these trans-women were asked to leave. Clearly no one else in my class could figure it out either. Some, who felt that trans-women were still men, stated that their original sex was the reason, but our professor claimed that was not the case. We were stumped and she refused to give us the answer.

So this has been a question that I have worked on for a very long time. I think now I understand why the author felt that these trans-women needed to be removed.

When the trans-women first enter they do so loudly, drawing attention to themselves. They are described as non-native and when they are quietly asked to leave they take issue with the request. With out hesitation they loudly proclaim that they deserve to be there.

They deserve to be there...

I had not thought of it before. This is because despite being taught about accepting all people I was never taught about privilege. I didn't understand, until I started taking gender and sexuality courses, that some people, because of how they look or their sex, are given preference over others. However, I also did not consider that sometimes even when we are on the outside, such as these trans-women, we can still have privilege over others. This is such the case with the Native women in this anti-violence group.

These women are marginalized more than most groups in North America. To be native and poor almost seems to mean that you are not worthy of human dignity. How then could they see these trans-women as anything less than a source of violence? And the fact that these women did not consider that they would not be welcomed is part of the problem with unconsidered privilege. They considered themselves outsiders and therefore without privilege, but that is not the case at all. Privilege is not just a two way street, where either you have it or you don’t. It’s more like a pyramid. There will always be someone with more privilege than you, but you also have to consider that there will always be someone with less privilege than you.

Genderbitch has an interesting article on the concept of Expectation of Trust which is the same issue. These trans-women had an unreasonable expectation that because they were also marginalized that they would be immediately trusted by another marginalized group. To believe that just because you have less privilege than one person does not mean that there is anyone with less privilege than you is selfish and unreasonable.

It wasn’t because they were trans that these women were sent away. It was because they flaunted their privilege in the face of some of the most marginalized people in North America. They did this without consideration and could not see past their own desires to see how they were only causing harm.