The Privilege Walk

Did you ever feel oppressed and blamed the world for it? Did you ever feel guilty for all the comforts you have? Did you ever think on how privileged you are in this world?

The answer to these questions is a Privilege Walk. Let me first explain what it is. People come together and stand in a horizontal line holding hands. Everyone should keep their eyes closed during this walk. Statements will be read out with instructions asking you to take a step forward or backward if it applies to you. Here’s an example of the statements.

“If you grew up in a household where people didn’t have to sacrifice a meal to run the house, take a step forward.”

“If you have ever been physically or mentally abused because of your race, or gender, take a step backward.”

During this process, people keep taking steps forward and backward based on what relates to them. People should keep holding the hands of others as long as they can. However, the chain of hands keeps breaking at a lot of places. At the end of the activity, everyone can open their eyes to see where they are and where everyone else is.

I just did a privilege walk and here are my reflections. I did this walk with 60 people from more than 30 countries after spending my last two days with them. At the end of the walk, when I opened my eyes, I found myself somewhere in the middle of the spectrum with people scattered everywhere – almost 15 steps ahead of me and behind me. This reminded me of how everyone in this world faces different situations and different problems. A few people with whom I have interacted and thought they had everything in life were at the end of the spectrum. People I did not expect were at the front. I unknowingly judged them without knowing what they have been through.

For me especially, when the one standing beside me had to step forward twice and had to let go of my hand, I felt left out. When I had to step forward and leave the other person’s hand, I just didn’t want to. I wanted to drag him forward too. Throughout this walk, I came across fears and emotions. When the statement said, “If you have never lost an opportunity because of your race or gender, step forward”, I just stood there. All the moments when I faced oppression being a woman started flashing in front of my eyes. When the statement said, “If you think you can step into the future without the fear of being raped, step forward”, I just stood there again. I was afraid. I kept thinking about a lot of things I had to fight for. I kept thinking about everything that has been inspiring me to be what I am. I kept thinking about all the people in my life. I grew up in poverty. My family sacrificed meals to run the house. My parents made sure that difficulties don’t reach me. My friends made me strong. I went down a memory lane of sufferings and pain. We don’t have time to think about this everyday. What you are today is defined by what you have been through. If you have everything you want in life, remember that someone made sure you got that everything.

I was surprised at people’s reactions to a few statements. For example, the one standing beside me did not move forward to the statement, “If you knew from your childhood that your family wants to send you to a college, take a step forward”. There are a lot of things we take for granted. The roof on our top, the food in our plate, the education we receive, the government we have, we take it for granted. Think for a moment about how many people are out there without these. People are dying of hunger. People are at war. People are being driven away from their homes. People are not sure if they will wake up to see a tomorrow.

It is time to think about how privileged we are in this world. Privilege is a blessing. Be it our ancestors or the government or some person sitting in a faraway land, we should remember who gave us this privilege. We should be thankful for what we have.

We are morally obliged to help others who are not as privileged as us.