On the Limits of Privilege

Privilege

Amongst people privileged enough to have discussions on social media about abstract concepts, discussions of privilege is a la mode. A quick rifle through its usages on today’s Twitter, turns up the following (spelling and punctuation retained as originally posted):

• a Latina woman complaining about the colourism of “white/light latinxs” within Latin communities:

“they chose tha privilege they live with instead of bein part of our community” [150 likes, 75 retweets]

• a white person sarcastically complaining that white people can’t do anything without a black person calling them out for racism:

‘So one of my coworkers got up and apparently went crying to the principal about me. Why? Because I took a can of coke out of the fridge before she could get to it. She said I made her uncomfortable & embarrassed with my blatant white privilege’ [46 likes, 13 retweets]

Poems that Make Men Cry

I was invited this Saturday as a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme to discuss issues around the theme of poetry, emotions and masculinity. My fellow guest, Anthony Holden, is one of a father-and-son team of editors of a new anthology, ‘Poems That Make Grown Men Cry’ (Simon & Schuster), in which 100 well-known men each introduce a poem that moves them to tears. On the radio, we only had 5 minutes right at the end of the show, so I thought I put my ideas down more fully here.