Privilege discourse really is some wrecker shit. It refocuses conversations away from the harm done to the oppressed and makes it all about the members of the oppressor caste/class, and reframes these harms as *benefits*. It’s designed to undermine solidarity. https://twitter.com/andraydomise/status/1355666576394113027

And don’t confuse what I’m saying—we do need a to battle racism, sexism, and all other caste oppressions. That’s a necessary part of socialist struggle, in making a class conscious working class. But privilege discourse undermines real work

For all the lip service to concepts like systemic racism, privilege discourse invariably individualizes caste systems and makes them into inescapable, immutable characteristics that the individual carries with them. It paralyzes, not empowers

It reifies caste. Caste markers are meant to be immutable and inescapable. The individual cannot escape their caste—that’s the point of caste. Privilege reinforces this system. It says “it’s bad” but it provides absolutely no blueprint for attacking it

And while it says “caste is bad” it also says “but don’t forget YOU benefit from it” to the members of elite castes. And what does that inspire in those people? It frames caste as a zero sum game, in which liberation comes at the expense of the elite castes.

It encourages eg white people to conceive of liberation for people of color as a threat to themselves. Instead of framing liberation as...liberation. Instead of it being about justice, it becomes a dark cloud on the horizon.

When we talk about caste systems and oppression, we need to focus on the human beings *oppressed* by these systems. We need to frame liberation in terms of the justice and freedom it brings to the oppressed.

Privilege discourse takes conversations about racism and refocuses them into being all about white people. How white people move through life, how white people feel, etc. It’s a great way to make it all about me me me instead of focusing on material harms

And, again, it’s paralyzing. You can’t discharge your privilege. But we CAN fix material harms done to the oppressed. You can’t get rid of your privilege, but we CAN decolonize, we CAN have reparations. We CAN fix things. Privilege discourse distracts from that

It puts people in a framework that encourages them to give up because what can you do?

Of course this is generally the case with any framing of social injustice in individualistic terms. Because *I* can’t solve these problems, but *we* can. The individual being the framework for understanding oppression encourages us to feel helpless