Why Privilege Is Important

What is privilege? Privilege is having benefits, which are based upon belonging to a specific group of people, that others may not have. One privilege that I am granted is the ability to purchase a home in a neighborhood where I am surrounded by people who share the same skin color as myself. This financial ability also allows my children to attend schools that have more resources and extra-curricular activities available to them; and be taught the history of our ancestors. Also, since my relationship is similar to those of my neighbors, I do not have to worry about what others think of our household and how we are raising our children. Privilege affects everyone differently. It can be because of our race, based on our gender, socio-economic status, or having a disability, just to name a few. When considering the legislation introduced by Representative’s Barrett and Noble, the people who are affected fall across all domains. This current legislation would eliminate the requirement to educate parents who choose not to vaccinate their child and would allow parents to keep their unvaccinated child in school if they …show more content…
This ability to make a decision that affects so many is an example of privilege because they were able to get into the ears of the people in power. As stated in my earlier paper, families of unvaccinated children tend to be wealthier, educated, white, English speaking and have health insurance (Smith, PhD. et al., 2011). This advantage allows them the opportunity to make a decision that greatly impacts people who do not have the same resources available to them. Families within the middle class have doctors readily accessible to them and have the ability to research the pros and cons of vaccines online, whereas families of lower class may