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Check Your Privilege
Part of a series on Social Justice Blogging. [View Related Entries]
About
"Check Your Privilege" is an online expression used mainly by social justice bloggers to remind others that the body and life they are born into comes with specific privileges that do not apply to all arguments or situations. The phrase also suggests that when considering another person’s plight, one must acknowledge one's own inherent privileges and put them aside in order to gain a better understanding of his or her situation.
Origin
The phrase “Check Your Privilege” was used as early as March 2006 on the social justice blog Shrub.com[1] in an article explaining how to accept one’s inherent privilege and understand situations that members of non-privileged groups are going through.
![Check my what?" On privilege and what we can do about it: Some tips on going from pro-equality in spirit to pro-equality in deed What is Privilege?] [Accept Your Privilege] [Understanding Your Privilege] [Adopt a Language of Respect and Equality] [How to Approach Minority Spaces] [Treat Us Like Humans, Not The Other] [If You're Not the Problem, Then You're Not the Problem]](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/423/461/6da.png "6da.png")
Precursor: Privilege Checklists
The concept of a social privilege checklist was popularized by Peggy McIntosh in a 1998 article titled “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.”[2] In the article, she discusses both white and male privileges with a list of 26 advantages that white people have due to their skin color.
* I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
* I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
* I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.
* I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
* If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race
Inspired by this article, many privilege checklists in both article and list form began popping up online, especially via the women's studies listserv WMST-L.[9] In September 2006, social justice blog Alas! A Blog[3] compiled a list of fifteen of these, including those for able-bodied people[4], black males[5], members of the upper class[6], Americans[7] and heterosexuals.[8]
Spread
In 2007, “Check Your Privilege” appeared on a number of blogs including Feministe[10], Shapely Prose[11] and The Geek Side.[12] In 2008 and 2009, the phrase was used on women's blogs including The F Word[13], Feminist Critics[14] and The Angry Black Woman.[15] In June 2009, “Check Your Privilege” was mentioned on the Geek Feminist Wiki[16] as a method to remind other people of how their background shapes their thoughts. In November 2010, a Redditor used the phrase on /r/MensRights[17] in response to a story about a false rape accuser’s ability to remain anonymous while the name of the man she accused stays exposed in the media. In March 2012, the domain checkyourprivilege.com[23] was registered, but does not contain any content. That October, an article was published on the British news site the Guardian[22] about how the term has evolved into a bullying tactic for commentators who align themselves with social justice agendas and use privilege-related arguments to derail conversations.
On YouTube
As of October 2012, there are more than 2300 search results on YouTube[25] for “check your privilege,” including both serious vlogs (shown below, left) and satirical videos (shown below, right).
On Tumblr
In January 2011, “Check Your Privilege” appeared in a Tumblr post[18] by user feyboy in reference to seeing straight white cisgender women in college complaining about not receiving a monetary allowance from their parents. During the course of 2011, the phrase became a popular tag on Tumblr[19] with the rise of social justice blogs on the platform, along with several others including "white cis male," die cis scum"[20] and “social justice.”[21] In August 2012, the parody blog Children Who Need To Check Their Privilege[23] was launched to provide satirical commentaries on images of babies and small animals as a mockery of the social justice blogging community. On August 31st, the webcomic Homestuck introduced a character named Kankri[24] (shown below), seeming to represent a parody of a stereotypical Tumblr social justice blogger. In his first appearance, he mentions checking his piety privilege.
![[S] ACT 6 INTERMISSION 3 >Close conversation. KANKRI: 9nce again, I ap919gize. I've 6lundered int9 the pr961ematic territ9ry 9f vacillati9n shaming, thus 9pening the f199dgates t9 the myriad ways 9ne may 6e disadvantaged up9n 6y its staggering shame radius. I f9rg9t t9 check my piety privilege, and here we are. I was g9ing t c9ver this t9pic in a much later chapter 9f my lecture, 6ut we've g9tten 6adly derailed here. #TW #Derailment #Train wrecks #ch99 ch99 catastr9phes Start Over Go Back Save Game ( IAuto-Save! (?)| Load Game | Delete Game Data](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/423/455/1e7.png "Act 6 Intermission 3")
Search Interest
External References
[1] Shrub.com – "Check my what?" On privilege and what we can do about it
[2] Racial Equity Tools – White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
[3] Alas! A Blog – A List Of Privilege Lists
[4] Edequity Archives – Another McIntosh style of privileges
[5] De Anza College – The Black Male Privileges Checklist
[6] Class Acts (via Wayback Machine) – The Invisibility of Upper Class Privilege
[7] Counterpunch – The Costs of American Privilege
[8] Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack II (via Wayback Machine) – Daily effects of straight privilege
[9] WMST-L Archive – White Privilege
[10] Feministe (via Wayback Machine) – “Check Your Privilege At The Door” – Entering women-only spaces as a man
[11] Shapely Prose – Gratitude
[12] The Geek Side – Check your privilege at the door.
[13] The F Word – Men! Feminism needs you! (Not your privilege…)
[14] Feminist Critics – Female Privilege
[15] The Angry Black Woman – The Do's and Don'ts of Being a Good Ally
[16] Geek Feminist Wiki – Privilege Edit from June 8th, 2009
[17] Reddit – Check your privilege.
[18] Tumblr (via Wayback Machine) – feyboy | Check Your Privilege (AKA, Boo hoo. I’m sure that life is just so hard for you.)
[19] Tumblr – Posts Tagged "check your privilege"
[20] Tumblr – Posts tagged "die cis scum"
[21] Tumblr – Posts tagged "social justice"
[22] The Guardian – Online bullying – a new and ugly sport for liberal commenters
[23] Tumblr (via Wayback Machine) – Children Who Need To Check Their Privilege
[24] MSPA Wiki – Kankri Vantas
Top Comments
Austin
Oct 24, 2012 at 06:09PM EDT
Necro910: That Krieger Dude
Oct 24, 2012 at 06:43PM EDT