The Perspective of Privilege
Last year, Zoha Qamar ‘15 and I wrote a piece about privilege at prep schools that focused on some of the absurdities occurring at the Avenues School in New York City. That was easy to criticize; it was an extreme example of privilege gone too far. What I’ve started to realize, something I’m embarrassed not to have reflected on more deeply before and something that is true for almost everyone I know, is that as an individual, I have also allowed privilege to distort my worldview.Exeter is a cocoon. It makes some of the most privileged things in the world-an education on par with the highest standards in the country, a beautiful campus, an enormous library, a faculty that is extremely dedicated to the student body-seem normal. And, slowly, as the enchantment we once had with this places erodes, so does part of our sense of reality, if it even existed in the first place. Before we know it, we forget how privileged we are to even go here.When we begin to lose sight of that, the next phase settles in. It’s the phase when it is easy, beyond easy, to become caught up in the stresses of Exeter. To think only about that next English reading, or math test, or history essay. To forget the world around us; to become lost in ourselves. Before we know it, all we think about are our needs and our wants on a largely superficial level. And that is dangerous.It is dangerous when we are unable to look outside of ourselves and process what is going on around us. It is dangerous when the suffering of others becomes entirely abstract, something from which we are detached. It is dangerous when we plow through life here without ever taking the time to step back and think about what lies beyond our campus because, believe it or not, there is an entire world out there filled with every shade on the spectrums of human emotion and experience and all we can think about is whether or not to order that L.L. Bean flannel.I would be lying if I said I wasn't guilty of those two things; taking Exeter for granted and being caught up in myself. I would be lying if I said that I fully appreciate the library when I sit at my carrel on Sunday morning, forgetting that very few people have access to such an awesome resource. I would be lying if I said that I never forget that the cost going to this school is more than the median household income in the United States. I would be lying if I said I dont waste too much time thinking about my material possessions when there are people with infinitely greater problems than mine.It’s okay sometimes to be lost within ourselves; it’s almost impossible not to be wrapped up in the privilege. But I think there is a point when that begins to inhibit our ability to see the world around us. Our worldviews become distorted. Mine certainly has. The deck of life has, thus far, been stacked in my favor, and it would serve me, and many others here, to remember that every once in a while.