Thread by @iyad_elbaghdadi

When the underprivileged push for equality, they are seeking an outcome that to them is both a moral good and a material advantage. When the privileged push for equality, they are seeking an outcome that is a moral good, but involve loss of privilege (at least in relative terms)

For this reason, I think that in certain contexts, a member of the privileged class pushing for equality would take more moral fiber and more strength of character, and we should acknowledge that. They're seeking to change a system that (unfairly) *benefits* them.

Being privileged does not make you automatically guilty but it can make you blind to injustices far removed from your own lived experience. It takes more courage to see things beyond your lived experience, and to work to curtail your own privilege for the sake of others.

Of course there's a flipside to this, which is when privileged people hijack or appropriate the activism of the marginalized, for the sake of the social capital that comes with activism (and because as privileged people they get more access and better platforms)

This isn't what I'm talking about here - I'm not talking about people who use their privilege to coopt the struggles of others. I'm talking about the exceptional people who, for moral reasons and due to their acute perception of injustice, work to limit their own privilege.