Not that kind of privilege!

Here’s a quick story….

“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning Boys: How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?” (David Foster Wallace – Author)

I love this story so much because it perfectly illustrates how we can take things that we have always had in abundance for granted including our privilege. For the lawyers out there I’m not talking about legal privilege but rather privilege in the sense of “certain social advantages, benefits, or degrees of prestige and respect that an individual has by virtue of belonging to certain social identity groups” (García, Justin D. 2018. “Privilege (Social Inequality).

Privilege is not so much about what you you’ve gone through, but rather what you haven’t had to go through due to belonging to a certain group in society.

A lot has been written about race, male and even sexual orientation privilege but not enough is said about other forms of privilege which we may have but take for granted including the following:

• Socio-economic privilege – if you earn more than R780?300 per annum in South Africa you’re in the top 10% income bracket in SA
• Education privilege – different levels and types of education provide different types of access. For example the connections you make in private school, regardless of your level of tertiary education, can set you up for life. Speaking with a private school accent alone can take you far…
• Geographical or location privilege – different benefits accrue to women who live in South Africa as opposed to Afghanistan or lawyers who live in Johannesburg instead of Qumbu
• Stable family unit privilege – statistically kids raised by both parents do better than kids raised in single parent households. Kids raised in stable triple-generation households do even better.
• Beauty privilege?– pulchronomics, which is the study of the economics of physical attractiveness, shows that attractive people have bigger lifetime earnings, quicker career advancement and lower likelihood of being incarcerated
• Light skin privilege – Lighter skinned people of colour are awarded social and economic privileges because of their closer phenotypic resemblance to whites
• Able bodied privilege – Do you ever have to think twice about how to physically access a building? If not you're extremely lucky!

The list of privileges is endless but I am sure you get my point. We are all hugely privileged in one way or another. To be clear though just because you hold privilege in one area (e.g., race or gender privilege) it doesn’t mean that you don’t lack privilege in other areas (e.g., socio-economic or geographical privilege). ??What is important is that we should all be aware of our own unique privileges and use them for the greater good by becoming an ally of, and giving a voice to, those who may not enjoy the same privileges that we do. This is especially the case within the legal profession which is plagued by transformation issues where the privileges I have discussed above play a critical role in determining whether one fails or succeeds professionally.

As we start a new year as legal professionals, I implore you to look around and identify your water, be grateful for it and strive to share it with those who are languishing in the desert...…it’s the least you can do if you’re swimming in the ocean.?