Probably the Least Important Aspect of this Debate, but...

[steepholm]

My eyes rather glazed over before I reached the comments of this New Statesman article on privilege checking. I've ridden this particular carousel more than a few times right here on LJ, and seen more interesting views too.

But it reminded me that I've always had a strange linguistic niggle about the phrase "check your privilege". Does it mean "check" as in "check your pulse", or "check" as in "check your coat"? In other words, is it "Be aware of your privilege", or "Leave your privilege at the door"? I suspect the former, but I can never quite cast off the ghostly presence of the latter sense. How do you read it?

[Poll #1885786]

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Or: note your privilege and think, Thank fuck for that. I do apologise for not being that apologetic.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

...however, it is typical of the Left: smug, sanctimonious nitpicking and internal bullying while the Right are getting away with murder. I doubt whether it will ever be different, because so much of the left need to reinforce their superiority complex.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm not suggesting a debate on the general question of "privilege" in political discourse. As I say, we've been this way before, many times, and I've largely sat out the last few iterations. I haven't regretted it.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Very wise.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

This term is unknown is unknown in America where we are meant to pretend I have no more privilege than the 2 brothers who are the chief bankrollers of the Republican presidential nominee and have two supreme court justices on their payroll.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I've come across it used by Americans (e.g. some of the commenters below), but I can well believe that there, as here, it's not commonly heard outside groups of people who discuss politics in a particular way. In the sense it's meant here, almost everybody is privileged according to one metric or another. If you're any one of the following - white, western, male, cis, educated, heterosexual, rich enough to feed and clothe yourself, healthy, non-disabled, neurotypical, and no doubt others that I haven't thought of - why, then you're privileged, and the grain of the world goes with you, at least in that respect.

I suppose the difference between privilege in this sense and the way it's used in ordinary language is a bit like the difference between "ideology" as used by Althusser (for whom it's ubiquitous) and as used by people who believe that because they are not committed to a particular political party they have no ideology at all.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I think the vast majority of people I've heard it from are American (though that has a lot to do with my frequenting majority-USian feminist sites), and I'd thought of it as probably American in origin.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Definitely not "check your coat." I'd say it means "check" as in "restrain" -- hold back a second and be aware of the role your privilege plays in how your discourse comes across. Or it could be more like "check your fly" -- letting you know your privilege is showing, as it were.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

You know I hadn't thought of "check" as in "restrain", but that makes at least as much sense as the other two.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Check as in 'his unchecked rampage destroyed three teapots and a moose', I've always thought.

[larryhammer]

Wah! Not the moose!

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Given the teapots, possibly a dormoose?

[larryhammer]

That would be more fitting.

---L.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I may adopt "Check your rampage" as a motto.

[sovay]

Since I've started seeing the phrase, it's always registered to me as a combination of check-as-in-pulse and check-as-in-keep-in-check, but I have no idea if the second was intended. Where can it be traced to?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I don't know where it started, but I've never heard anyone say it out loud - my experience of the phrase has been entirely online.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

I've certainly seen it used in the latter sense, though I tend to go with the former myself.

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

AFAICT this is where the meme got going, in 2006: http://blog.shrub.com/archives/tekanji/2006-03-08_146

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Which means I should take back my vote, though I suspect that the overtones of meaning ("check" as temporarily surrender, and as restrain) help lubricate the transfer of the meme from person to person.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link - and yes, I suspect you're right about the lubrication. I was quite reassured (and a little disturbed) to see how evenly split the answers have been between the various readings, since it proves that my discomfort isn't purely idiosyncractic, but I can't help feeling that three-word political slogans ought at least to try to be monosemous.

[thinkum]

I would *like* it to mean, check as in hockey, i.e. to bring to a halt and send sprawling. But I suspect that's not it...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

[x] "Check" as in "piece of paper used to pay money from your high-net-worth-customer bank account, if you're an American" ;-)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Of course, you might be playing your privilege at chess, as people in more religious times were rumoured to play the Devil, in which case...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Although according to some authorities, Death prefers to play Exclusive Possession ...

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

As in "keep it in check". But this seems like a very American term that I've only heard recently in this country and I don't really like it. It seems like a pompous and self-righteous way of saying "you can't IMAGINE how hard it is to be me (whine whine)". People have said it to me and frankly I don't consider myself privileged. It's all relative, of course.

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

I would have said "examine", with a hint of "restrain the worst excesses which result from", but I think I've seen it used to imply the "check your coat" sense too. I think it's actually a very good point to raise, as people's uncertainty about exactly what the phrase means contributes to their irritation with and suspicion of the concept. Asking someone to examine how the advantages they have affect their view of the world and particularly their view of and interactions with people who don't have those advantages is one thing--we could call it self-awareness and courtesy--demanding "privilege" to be "checked at the door" is another, and much more likely, I feel, to lead to pointless guilt and point-scoring.

[forochel.livejournal.com]

I've always weirdly thought of it in a sports sense, like when a player, um, bodily ... impacts ... on another, to stop them/steal the puck or whatever away from them. so in a way it's like ... stopping yourself from saying something really shitty.

[aerodrome1.livejournal.com]

It's presented as meaning "check" as in "check your coat", but of course it's used to mean "shut up--- you have no right to an opinion". It's a moraliser's way of imposing silence. And as someone who is all the usual descriptors for evil (male, white, over 30, cis and cis-presenting, hetero, middle class, educated, born in the First World), it's taken as a given that I'm not allowed to have an opinion.