Privilege as Explained by Sims and High Shelves

People talk a lot about privilege these days. Some people discuss it in terms of considering it before you judge someone else. Other people are angry when they believe others have it. Others still are angry when they feel they've been 'accused' of having it, even if they do. Sometimes I'm not even sure people understand what it means. My sims, however, gave me a great example of it.

As I've mentioned before, in Sims 4, you have Aspiration goals. These are complex tasks that lead to some really great rewards. The best thing they give you is points you can use to gain traits, which assist you a lot in the game.  If you are ambitious with a Sim, you can achieve quite a few aspirations in their lifetime.

Now here's the tricky part. If your sims complete the one of the Aspirations concerning their home, every generation after that will automatically gain this Aspiration when you select it. The home is completed and beautiful. They don't need to do anything to make that happen. So as soon as they turn teen, you can select it and boom they have like 5000 pts to use on traits. If your parent sim has completed the Collector Aspiration, there are like maybe two or three things your following generations have to do. That's another 5000 pts. Before most people have any traits other than just the beginning ones, these sims now have a whole lot.

And this is not their fault. It doesn't make them evil. The first generation sim DID work for that stuff (in game terms) and of course, they would want their family to benefit from it. See, I think maybe this is something that people who have privilege don't quite grasp when people point out that they have them. No one is saying you're evil for being privileged. No one is saying you're an awful person.

They are just asking you to remember that you started out with more stuff than others and keep this in mind when you are discussing things with them. I don't even think in most cases they are asking you to give those things up (there are exceptions, of course). In most cases, we can't.

And often, advantages that we have come with disadvantages. My roommate is taller than me. The advantage is that he can reach all the high stuff. The disadvantage is that often the world isn't designed for tall people. Neither of us is morally or spiritually better people because of this difference. The difference is physical and has good and bad points. Neither of us has ever demanded the other apologize for their height because that would be insane.

He accepts his privilege in this situation and is kind enough to get the blankets out of the high shelves and switch the ceiling fans when the seasons change. I accept my privilege of being of the average height most things are designed for and do my best to consider how things we purchase will affect his comfort. And while both of these examples are simple and seem like common sense things people would do for each other, marriage end because people can't accept how size affects day to day living.

Lately, it seems that people default to anger and defensiveness. I don't think that is getting us anywhere. Maybe a little understanding and a little communication would help.