mattcens_mumblings/content/posts/2016-04-22-wasting-privilege.md

title	author	type	date	url	publicize_twitter_user	categories
Wasting privilege	mattcen	post	2016-04-21T14:57:47+00:00	/2016/04/22/wasting-privilege/	mattcen mattcen mattcen	activism feminism openness politics transparency

I’m a middle-class, cisgender, white, male living in the 21^st century. This affords me a non-trivial amount of privilege. I was reminded of this tonight as I had “Call the Midwife” S04E03 on in the background and I listened to how the English landlords refused lodgings to the Irish, and how homosexuality was treated with oestrogen tablets, with unpleasant side-effects. Despite being a fictional show, I don’t doubt it reasonably accurately reflects the reality of mid-20^th century England, and it made me extremely uncomfortable, but also glad that I life in a time and place where I’m not directly affected by this sort of thing.

I subsequently saw the following:

If you're into hackfests and #opendata, please read this. I'm guilty on most fronts here, so much to think about. https://t.co/8xS2itFZkc

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  &mdash; Steve Bennett (@stevage1) <a href="https://twitter.com/stevage1/status/723109587264503810">April 21, 2016</a>
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<p>
  And read Rosie&#8217;s <a href="https://openaus.net.au/blog/2016/04/21/open-government-and-inequality-two-sides-of-the-same-coin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blog post</a> in the referenced tweet, which really reinforced my middle-class-ness, hitting particularly close to home because it referenced the GovHack Red Carpet awards in which I was involved last year. Rosie&#8217;s post also references the <a href="http://unemployedworkersunion.com/2016/04/07/34036/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Australian Unemployed Workers&#8217; Union Conference</a> from Tuesday, one of the sessions of which I caught the tail end of a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/985160954863696/videos/1038656072847517/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video stream</a> of, and was appalled by the circumstances the speakers have to endure.
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<p>
  Having now started to feel bad about the fact that I have spent a significant amount of time <span style="text-decoration:underline;">wasting</span> my privilege  by not using it to help people less fortunate than me, I&#8217;m letting this serve as a reminder that we should be always evaluating where we decide to focus our efforts to maximise value while still bringing us joy and satisfaction.
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<p>
  I am passionate about plenty of social justice issues, from queer and trans discrimination, to feminism, to openness and transparency, and I&#8217;m only starting to see the tip of the iceberg on issues of unemployment, poverty, class, and racism. I need to remind myself that I can&#8217;t efficiently give my time to all of these causes, but I can carefully pick my battles, and do my best to make a positive impact, while listening to and amplifying the voices of those I&#8217;m trying to help.
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