We need to talk about privilege.
Allow me some ramblin' here, because it's been sitting at the back of my mind for quite while now. It came to the fore again this past week as I followed
Jack Monroe blog about her
Live Below The Line Challenge - surviving on £1 a day for five days - as she used to do, scraping together balanced, nutritious meals for something like 17p for dinner, 12p for breakfast, using up the last wilted spring onion in her soup, diluting the juice from the canned peaches for a drink, stretching that one can
over five days.
And yet we (I) can get so blasé over the origin of our coffee beans, the presentation of our food, how predator-friendly our lamb must be.
Privilege.
In South Africa we have an ongoing, raging debate over (white) privilege (
e.g. ) and the realisation whether you were/are privileged.
I didn't grow up in an affluent home. Many months my parents were in their overdraft (privilege) within a week of payday. Yet, there was no question that I would not attend university (privilege), albeit with the help of bank loans (privilege). And once these were paid off by my dad's pension payout (privilege), I could continue with postgraduate studies where my Hons. and MSc degrees came basically free, courtesy of bursaries, research grants and the like (privileges galore).
And then one (I) become so used to be studying/working in this milieu, that you (I) can forget that you're actually part of but a small group. Same when you start travelling, or working as a registered professional. Your (my) privileges become so part of your (my) background, that you don't even realise it anymore.
For me that realisation came when we returned to South Africa from Aus (privilege) and chose to buy a house (privilege) in a less affluent area than where we previously lived. We did this to afford me remaining a stay-at-home-mom (privilege), but still being able to buy the house we wanted, at half the price and triple the stand size compared to where we looked before. There, many people I met weren't university (post)graduates. Travel wasn't a taken-for-granted annual occurrence. So very quickly my casual references to coffee shop this or Canada that or bought such and such or Scotland/HongKong/Nairobi what not became much more guarded, more thoughtful to where and when it may be raised.
Privilege.
While the more affluent acquaintances would raise their eyebrows at our choice of neighbourhood, choice of lifestyle :-0
Now, raking this topic all the way over to hooky - this can so easily happen over a crochet hook and a yarn of wool. I'll be the first to admit that I do love my German Prym hook (not available in SA, but a very common buy at Kaufhof). I love pure cotton Vinnis yarn, pure merino, or bamboo, something laced with silk,. I go glassy-eyed at the sight of Malabrigo at my LYS, or Katia Cotton Jeans, or linen (priviliges ad infinitum)...but I will not shy away from a nice acrylic - and there ARE nice acrylics.
Managing Ons Hekel, I came to realise that there many hookers who can't afford the lovely natural yarns exploding on the South African market, or who can't access it from their country towns/farms (our postal system is in a shambles). Now, when you are constantly bombarded by others enthusing about the above, you can either strive to get your hands on one of these, or begin to feel resentful about the fact that so many other are boasting about it, or begin to feel embarrassed to show off your work, as you don't deem it to be of the same quality/to be as pretty.
And these are all valid, true bona fide remarks I have read on the group or received in my inbox.
Privilege dampening the experiences of others.
That is not something I would have wanted to read, that the joy of one would lead to the withdrawal of another.
It's all about the way one expresses oneself, isn't it?
Therefore I'll take even more care of my use of the term "squeak", because even though I might hate the feel of Mirage, it might also be the only yarn another woman can get in her town. Or someone else might actually love it.
Be a bit more mindful about the way I talk about yarns.
So, hand in hand with our ongoing discussion on colour (the use of, the combinations of) on Ons Hekel, I decided the launch the Cheap & Cheerful Challenge, a challenge to make something real pretty from cheap acrylic yarn. To show that you CAN make a beautiful blanket with Charity. To show that you CAN avoid horrid colour combinations when you work with Chick. That it is not the end of the world if you choose to /are only able to work with Pullskein.
Off I went to my local Checkers supermarket to buy some Chick and this is more or less how far my own contribution is.
 |
| Just two colours, grey and denim blue |
I promised a prize to the best contribution on the condition that to qualify the blanket then be donated to the Maak 'n Verskil group (Make a Difference). I've already had pledges towards the prize and quite a few blankies have been started. Looking forward to see what comes up!
Disclaimer - I know that not everybody will agree with my train of thought and/or links between these...that's also fine - the thought is mine.
PS (ed.) - I want to add on to Ale's comment below - she's residing in the neighbouring Mozambique; much less developed than RSA, much less availability of everything. My South Africa has very different levels of living - you can experience this country as totally First World, or else totally, hopelessly Third World. Within three, four km of my house there are squatter shacks, bush sleepers - but also houses with more bathrooms than people to use it. There are people selling household stuff to get money to buy food, there's a guy driving the latest Ferrari.
What I'm saying is - don't feel guilty about buying great quality, expensive yarn...four balls of aforementioned Katia came to my house this week. I'm just seeing this against the context of life around me, the things we can get so smug and boastful about - is it really that important? It's not a bloody achievement.
Just a privilege.
