Chapter 6: Privilege Doesn’t Mean You Didn’t Work Hard

Ferguson (2014), a South African feminist, defines privilege with 5 components. “1) Privilege is the other side of oppression. 2) We need to understand privilege in the context of power systems. 3) Privilege and oppression affect each other but do not negate each other. 4) Privilege describes what everyone should experience.” The fifth, being “privileged doesn’t mean you didn’t work hard.” The COVID pandemic has forced me to work extremely hard across multiple areas of my life; and my PRIVILEGE is right there, every step of the way.

Teaching: Now that our education world is Zoom-centric, it takes a lot to have to match my shirt and tie with my pajama pants. Perhaps more pressing, how do I change my in-person activity-oriented 3-hour classes to account for Zoom fatigue, and the realities and limitations of online interaction? It sure takes a lot of hard work redoing all my classes to adjust to this new environment.