No One Has Privilege When We Pull Each Other Down

I hear of males having privilege or females having privilege. The whites have privilege or blacks have privilege. In the intersectional hierarchy, white males have the ultimate privilege. But you go down and people of color, LGBTQ, and women don't have privilege. You talk to others that say that women have more privileges than men now because they are in the majority attending college and so forth.

Who really has the privilege? No one, yet everyone.

Via Public Domain Photos

My high school Spanish teacher taught us a life lesson he learned on the beach in Mexico from a man catching crabs. The teacher asked the man why he didn't cover the bucket of crabs. Surely, the crabs would escape. No, he reassured him, the crabs pull each other down.

We are all crabs in a bucket trying to get out, only we are pulling the other crab's legs in our struggle to climb the ladder.

I believe that sometimes men have advantages and sometimes women have advantages. Sometimes, white skin has advantages, but sometimes black skin has advantages. Historically, black skin in America most often meant slavery or subhuman treatment. Sometimes, being a minority helps a person land a job or a scholarship. But being a minority also might mean getting your braids whipped by a TSA agent.

Occasionally, I felt at a disadvantage in China with white skin and being a tourist. I was charged more at times and whispered about some. I was told not to look "poor" by the school I volunteered at when I crocheted blankets on a trip. I was supposed to be the "rich American." Well, I was a poor American then. My white skin has advantages in the US for not being profiled for crime.

Man versus woman plays out in the courtroom so often with rape claims, sexual harassment claims and divorces. Generally, men have a physical advantage over women. Some men physically or emotionally abuse their girlfriends or wives and children. On the other hand, some women physically or emotionally abuse their boyfriends or wives and children. There is also legal abuse that is a huge problem. We have false accusations that tarnish reputations of men or women. These come with restraining orders and child custody battles. Fathers or mothers sometimes won't see their children for years. Depending on which gender you favor most, the legal, religious, and social leaders tend to side with that person and defend with that man or woman to the end. I watch cases where it doesn't matter what the truth is: only ideology matters.

I really hope people look at their biases clearly here with who is right or wrong. Sometimes, we feel that a woman is weaker and has been trampled on by her abusive husband. Other times, we look at the man and feel he has been nagged to death by his wife. But are we really looking at the truth? Sometimes one or both parties is lying. We need to do our best to discern truth from error. Nevertheless, in a breakup situation, both need love. Both need help within the necessary boundaries people can give.

Ultimately, evil and pride are what prevails in winning the battle in a fallen world at times. It is what destroys individuals, marriages, families, and nations. It is the pitting of one group against another based on some characteristic such as gender, race, nationality, and so on. Satan or the humanistic tendency toward pride and chaos causes the divisions among us. Paul stated "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Our differences are fine as long as we don't use them as a tool to divide one another.