There’s been a bit of conversation on an old thread of mine called Other kinds of privilege. I thought I’d move some of it here just in case anyone wants to jump in. I have a feeling, though, that this conversation has probably been done to *death* on other blogs … but I’m not much of an academic, so, maybe I’ll repeat redundant points in a fresh manner.
I had mentioned Intelligence privilege and Talent privilege. Someone (pleasantly, may I add) disagreed with me that either Intelligence or Talent necessarily gets you anywhere. I realized my points weren’t made the way I thought they should have been anyway so here’s my long-ass comment in reply to the other comment …
Perhaps there is something called “average privilege” then? The first thing that comes to mind is that old game show “The Weakest Link,” where the average people would always inadvertently gang up on the smartest link and vote them off b/c they didn’t like the competition. Believe me, I’ve lost jobs for my intelligence as well, for “challenging” my boss or “telling them how to do their job” etc. I was a “gifted” kid in school and made straight As, really, just by having a pulse as far as I was concerned. I always thought that my intelligence was pretty average and that I was just surrounded by dreadfully stupid people. Yes, I found school boring. College was challenging, of course, but by then I think I was pretty set in my lazy ways and tended to take easier classes when I could. I noticed that many ppl in my advanced placement classes just cheated better.
But yeah, it’s VERY obvious that we don’t live in a meritocracy. Just to use the pizza delivery thing again, the drivers I’ve always worked with were usually smarter than the managers. The drivers make $15 an hour whereas the managers make $9. In which direction do you think the brain drain will flow?
When I brought up intelligence privilege, though, I was thinking more along the lines of ignorance vs. stupidity. I think some people, sadly, are just born stupid. If you’re ignorant, at least you could learn if you had the right opportunities and some patient teachers. If you’re just flat stupid, though, it’s not going to help.
If your family has lots of money, power, connections, etc., of course, you’re more than likely to rise higher than the most brilliant person of modest means. Shall we juxtapose George Bush and Chris Langan, the smartest man in the world who works as a nightclub bouncer?
But I’m thinking, in sheer *hypothetical* terms of, let’s say you put two people of modest means on a level playing field — same income, neighborhood, schools. The smarter one, perhaps through cleverness, inventiveness or academic ability, should rise higher than the person who’s just stupid — who has a lower IQ, who just can’t learn. The stupid guy will never be a great engineer or inventor. He could very well, as you mentioned, become an actor though. Or a different kind of entertainer, or an athlete — OK, ouch, not trying to stereotype athletes, but it isn’t book smarts that make you great on the field. And come to think about it, book smarts often don’t get you very high up on the income ladder anyway. I graduated college nearly 8 years ago magna cum laude but have never managed to scrape a salary of over $35K. But, I’ve still got tons more privilege than someone who’s broke and, well, dumb (someone with low cognitive abilities who doesn’t have a rich family to support them).
Re. point 2, I must agree with you here too, I’ve known plenty of astoundingly talented musicians that never got anywhere. The music business is a machine, and “boy bands” have been around longer than you may think, and in different forms — the Sex Pistols were essentially a boy band put together by Malcolm McLaren to help sell his leather clothing.
On the other hand, if you REALLY can’t play an instrument for shit, you’ll never even be an underappreciated artist. I took piano lessons for several years and eventually gave up when I realized that no matter how much I practiced, I would suck. So, the person who can at least *play* already has a leg up on me as far as ever “making it” is concerned. I still think of musical talent as something you are innately born with, so, since it’s unearned, it could be thought of as a privilege.
I guess for both of these, then, we need something like “the ability to come up with a marketing gimmick” privilege or “magnetic charisma to convince others that you have more intelligence and talent than you really do” privilege.
