What is important to one group is not all that important to another. For example, short people spend little or no time solving for hitting their heads while walking through doors, regardless of the height of the door. People who are taller have to consider doorways and at times make adjustments in order to avoid hitting their heads. Short people are oblivious to the threat of low doorways because it is not a threat to them. It is an innocent obliviousness, but at the same time not an obliviousness that is necessary. It costs short people nothing to be oblivious about doorways while it would be a hazard for tall people to think the same way.
Most people are not tall enough to consider the height of doorways. Therefore, most people are blind to the concern. When the concern is raised by tall people, short people may not think it is that big of a deal since most people do not have to worry about this issue. If tall people pushed the issue further, short people might feel attacked and feel like it is for no good reason. If pushed further, short people might attack tall people as a way to defend themselves – all the while perpetuating the risk. Tall people are resisted at every step along the way.
This is short privilege rearing its ugly head. The dominance of shortness in this world leaves tall people out.
Ok, being tall also has its advantages as well, strong advantages. Positive assumptions are made about tall people that may mitigate, sometimes in large measure, the negatives. Taller people are more likely to be leaders, make more money, and be considered credible. Pretty good advantages. But let’s replace tallness and shortness with skin color. People with lighter skin being the most numerous and having a history of making this nation according to their specifications, have more privilege. People with darker skin being fewer in number and having a history of being owned, segregated, resisted, and assumed to be hostile, have less privilege.
The same process occurs with skin color and the history associated with the skin color as happens with the height example. There are predictable phases of non-change in dominant culture in the presence of non-dominant culture. These phases are: missed, dismissed, critiqued, and attacked. What follows are brief descriptions of these phases. Included in each phase is how the dominant group marginalizes the non-dominant group while at the same time maintains its innocence.
Phase 1: Miss
The first phase in this social process of protecting privilege while maintaining claims of innocence is called “miss.” The dominant group is completely or mostly oblivious to the concerns of the non-dominant group. People with lighter skin are unlikely to be aware of the concerns of the people with darker skin. The dominant group is always solving its own problems, but behaves as though their problems are the only problems. And for them, they are the only problems. However, the non-dominant group has a set of problems too that only partially overlaps the problems of the dominant group. Therefore, only a portion of their main concerns are ever addressed. The dominant group maintains its innocence because they simply do not see the problems they have no impetus to solve. It costs them nothing to be oblivious. In most cases, it is not malicious obliviousness, but rather it is more myopic obliviousness.
Phase 2: Dismiss
The second phased in this social process of protecting privilege while maintaining claims of innocence is called “dismiss.” Since the dominant group was oblivious to the concerns of the non-dominant group, the full and complete responsibility to address these concerns rests upon the initiative of the non-dominant group. This may be a challenging task and may require a bit of courage because the onramps to expressing this need are geared to the convenience of the dominant group and may provide a barrier to the non-dominant group. So, when the non-dominant group rallies the courage to assert its concerns, it has to find out how the dominant group listens to concerns and then access that onramp. When the non-dominant group does express its concerns, since they are unfamiliar to the dominant group and may not even make sense to the dominant group, these concerns are often dismissed as less important or inconsequential. This assessment is generally true if passed through all of the assumptions of the dominant group with the assumptions of the non-dominant group either not known or not legitimatized. It is a case of “it’s-not-that-big-a-deal-ism.” In short, since the dominant group cannot understand the value of the concern, it is considered to be not worth the effort to address the issue. Addressing the issue would be too disruptive and likely be too costly in time and money to address. There is also the emerging sense that legitimizing the issue or concern might disrupt the foundational assumptions of the dominant group. The innocence is maintained because only legitimate and consequential issues deserve consideration and the concerns of the non-dominant group do not rise to this level (scrutinized through the lens of dominant assumptions).
Phase 3: Critique
The third phase in this social process of protecting privilege while maintaining claims of innocence is called “critique.” When the dominant group dismisses the concerns of the non-dominant group, the non-dominant group has to decide whether it will accept being rejected or persist. If the group persists, they conclude that their first initiative did not accomplish to desired outcome and so another, “louder,” initiative is required. In order to get the concern on the radar, they need to be more assertive in their communication. When the non-dominant group turns up the volume in expressing their concerns, the dominant group hears it, but also interprets it as inappropriately loud. So, rather than the dominant group dismissing the concern of the non-dominant group did before, they may elect to critique the way in which the non-dominant group has decided to express itself. Again, the actual concern is not attended to, but rather the what is attended to is the method of communication. Now the dominant group is defending itself by critiquing the non-dominant group. Because the volume of the communication of the non-dominant group is so uncomfortable or inconvenient to the dominant group, the dominant group organizes not to address the issue brought up by the non-dominant group, but the issue of the discomfort or inconvenience that the method of communication used by the non-dominant group used to get raise their concern to the level of action. The claim of innocence is maintained here by the dominant group because it feels to them that the problem has only now just begun and that it was thrust upon them through no fault of their own. The problem, as perceived by the dominant group, is the discomfort and inconvenience imposed upon them unnecessarily rather than the content of the concern raised in the first place. In the perception of the dominant group, they were innocently going about their fair and just business and then the non-dominant group decided to make life difficult for no good reason.
Phase 4: Attack
The fourth phase in this social process of protecting privilege while maintaining claims of innocence is called “attack.” When the third phase of critique is reached, the non-dominant group recognizes rapidly that what was heard was not their concern, but their method of making their concern known. There is likely substantial frustration at how the first three phases have produced three unique ways of not being honored for their request for their concern to be addressed. The non-dominant group must decide what to do. They can give up on the effort of raising their concern or try yet another way to communicate their concern. Often the non-dominant group increases the volume further but in some other way that is impossible to ignore. The dominant group responds in the same way as they did in phase three, but with increased intensity, often with the goal of ending this interaction once and for all. They feel attacked unnecessarily and blamed for things they did not intentionally do, thus maintaining their claim to innocence. The escalation moves beyond critique to leveraging their power in a move for closure on the matter. The matter at hand, however, is not the content of the concern reiterated by the non-dominant group, but instead the now unavoidable discomfort and inconvenience posed by the non-dominant group. The dominant group feels attacked and does not know why while the non-dominant group has moved from feeling ignored at the outset of this social process to oppressed as they now have to defend themselves not only against their original concern being repeatedly ignored, but also against efforts by the dominant group to get them to quick making mention of it.
Miss to Dismiss to Critique to Ignore.
This social process holds on with an iron grip to homeostasis which perpetuates the status quo until something larger than it can intervene. And yet, it does not have to be that way. This process can be interrupted at any phase, but the interruption needs to come from the dominant group thinking more widely than itself, with good visionary leadership that is culturally curious and creative. It also takes some evaluation for the non-dominant group to make decisions about what it does and does not need the dominant group to know and not know about. Some concerns may best be dealt with “in-house.”
Regardless, knowing that this four phase social process is the easiest and most common way privilege keeps it power while holding to claims of innocence might help to inspire the creation of other ways to handle social change and embracing the wider diversity that comprises culture.