"It's a privilege," Professor Plum said as he and the other resident faculty of Blogistan Polytechnic Institute made their way from the wine cellar library where they'd spent the weekend drinking thinking on our motto of Magis vinum, magis verum ("More wine, more truth"), to the hot tub faculty lounge for their weekly game where the underwear goes flying planning conference.
At first the staff thought he'd said "It's been a privilege" and that he might be leaving. But the BPI Conversational Playback System - Chef's memory - confirmed he hadn't said "been." Only "It's a privilege." We think that's a clue to their plan for the week. Or he was grateful for the coffee.
More below the fold....
First our customary thanks to last week's guest lecturers. Last Tuesday, Professor of Neuroholdemology Caractacus offered some surprising and interesting facts in a list of things he learned last week. And last Wednesday, Professor of Topofclassclownistics JanF blue-barred us with a lecture on Banksters, Re-Regulation, and Compromise. Both were excellent lectures and are well worth reading if you missed them.
As for the week ahead, you'll need your Official BPI Decoder Ring (some assembly required, batteries not included) tomorrow as Professor Caractacus continues his Things We Learned This Week Series with an introductory briefing on OPERATION TO BE DETERMINED. (The secret password is "If he specified the topic," for which the secret response is "I missed it.") You'll also need your BPI Decoder Ring on Wednesday for Professor of Juronursinfosystology FarWestGirl's follow-up briefing on OPERATION TO BE DETERMINED. (Same secret password - except for the pronoun "she" - and same secret response. Don't tell anyone.) And on Thursday, mdmslle makes her debut at the BPI lectern with a presentation on local political activism. Chef will be disguised as the Professor of Astrology Janitor and bump toes with the buffer, while the Professor of Astrology Janitor will be disguised as Chef and offer coffee and bagels.
Note: We have no guest lecturer scheduled for next Wednesday, April 28th. If you would like to guest host Morning Feature, or if you'd like to learn to operate the dials and switches and levers in the BPI's state-of-the-art HEMMED (High Energy Meta Mojo Elucidation Detector) laboratory and post the "Top of the Morning" featurette on Wednesdays, please volunteer in the Tuna Can, below.
Also note: We introduce a new Meta Monday thread today: What We Did This Week. Please join in with your contributions.
That leaves only the resident faculty, who will discuss privilege this week. Specifically, they will distinguish intentional discrimination - racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. - from how we can benefit from and help to perpetuate privilege without knowing it. Indeed, we often do, even we progressives, and even here on DailyKos. Privilege is among my Six Progressive Issues, but it's hard to discuss without making people defensive. That's why I think it's important to decouple unexamined privilege from intentional discrimination. Calling someone or some action "racist," "sexist," "homophobic," etc. implies an intention that often can't be proved and in fact may not exist.
More often we think, speak, and act from a position of unexamined privilege - unaware of the benefits of that privilege, unaware that others do not receive those same benefits, unaware that our words and actions serve to perpetuate that privilege - until someone mentions it. When they do, if we think of ourselves as "progressives," we're likely to respond as if we've been accused of intentional discrimination, and the conversation quickly dissolves into a bitter argument or stony silence. Neither helps us examine whether or how we did in fact speak or act from a position of privilege ... and the expression of privilege continues, even among progressives, and even here on DailyKos.
As we'll see, many of us have to learn how to think and speak the language of Progressive again ... or for the first time.
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Happy Monday!