Do Jews have Privilege?

[Purple Knight]

Question for debate: Do Jews have privilege in the West? Is it even okay to ask?

[Difflugia]

Do Jews have privilege in the West?

No.

The way the concept of "privilege" is more-or-less the degree to which your own situation is assumed to be normal. I can't think of very many ways this would apply to Judaism, at least in the United States. Just for quick context, think about grocery shopping. Do you know off the top of your head which foods contain pork ingredients, shellfish ingredients, or both meat and dairy together? Most non-Jews (and non-Muslims) are fine eating those, so they don't have to care. That is privilege.

Is it even okay to ask?

Of course. Conservative caricatures of privilege are common and tiresome enough that you might get lumped in with them, but as long as you're being honest and not "just asking questions," I don't think most people would object.

[Purple Knight]

No.

The way the concept of "privilege" is more-or-less the degree to which your own situation is assumed to be normal. I can't think of very many ways this would apply to Judaism, at least in the United States. Just for quick context, think about grocery shopping. Do you know off the top of your head which foods contain pork ingredients, shellfish ingredients, or both meat and dairy together?

Bivalves give me the Big Yuck (as in, gag reflex so strong that if I actually attempt to get it down, I will barf) so yes, I do have to look, for one of those, though not all. It's not just not liking them. If you offered me a large sum of money to eat an oyster, I probably could not. And I don't think this means I don't have privilege. I was vegetarian for a long time, and I don't think I magically lost my privilege then, either. I don't think white people can simply opt out of their privilege by adopting a religion with dietary restrictions, or adopting dietary restrictions for moral reasons. Besides, many Jews aren't Kosher.

The degree that you get society to indulge your pet peeves as if they weren't pet peeves is indeed one aspect of privilege, but it isn't encompassing of all privilege. Just to show you I'm not disagreeing that this really is privilege, anyone who isn't a nudist has a lot of privilege, because society forces people to wear clothes, by law, even when they don't want to, so that non-nudists don't have to have their eyeballs offended. This is like if I got to delete the colour bright candy apple red from everyone's cars and wardrobes, just because I thought it was ugly. That'd be massive amounts of privilege. It just wouldn't necessarily mean a nudist didn't have privilege in another way.

It does mean, however, that some degree of privilege is inevitable when people who disagree live together. If the grocery store offers non-Kosher options, expanding the selection of food and yumminess for those who are not Kosher, over those who are, people who are not Kosher are given privilege. But if all grocery stores sold exclusively Kosher goods, then those who are Kosher would have privilege.