Privilege persists where the selection process for recruits, training or promotion favours one group of candidates over others. In the UK employers must be able to demonstrate that a fair competitive process has been followed, that is not the case in the USA.
I remember a Jewish colleague in early 80s Manchester telling me to stay vigilant because after the Jews in this country were forced to leave through persecution the Catholics would be next in line.
We live in a complicated world where we can see that what we did years ago is impacting us today. We know that and what we do today will impact future generations. There are few ‘quick fixes’. But we can choose what we spend our money on and how we vote.
In the UK, most of us live in cities and 'our tribe' lives alongside other tribes who may believe different things, have different cultural practices, or look different. The advent of social media means that many young people have virtual, worldwide ’tribes’. This can lead to a feeling of ‘apartness’ in the real world. In our minds we have a picture of ‘us’ and a picture of ‘them’.
Any wildlife programme shows that predators, at the top of the food chain, have the advantage. I learnt that as I grew up and matured. However over the millennia we have evolved and developed ‘Rules of Law’ to protect the weaker, more vulnerable people and constrain the power of the strongest.
It is all too common for politicians to use fear of difference to create a cohesive force that increases their hold on power and the oppression of their people.
The presence of “arrivers” is increasingly contested , whether “legal” or “illegal” and asylum has shifted in meaning from a positive term for a traditional place of refuge to a language of rejectionism ; “asylum seekers are not welcome here”.
Is Christian nationalism slowly infiltrating the far right through insistence on "Christian identity” as a condition of citizenship? Jesus - What the hell kind of Christian is this guy anyway?
