What is Privilege?

When Abigail Adams wrote her son a letter in 1780 warning of the upcoming challenge of leading the nation into the new century, I don’t think she realized how timeless her letter would be. In 2019, living in Troy, Michigan, I was shocked by how much I understood what Abigail was saying.

Growing up in Troy, I was always aware of my privilege. I know not everyone in Troy is privileged, but everyone who I had met had led a somewhat privileged life. My parents did a good job of reminding me to acknowledge my privilege throughout my life. I knew what it meant to be privileged in this century, but how did it compare to the privilege the Adams family had back in 1780?

The word privilege originally came from the two Latin words, privus (meaning private) and lexlag (meaning law) that combined to form privilegium. Privilegium is defined as a law applying to one person, bill of law in favor of or against an individual. So if privilege came about in the legal sense, why is it used in so many places besides law?

Privilege in the revolutionary era meant an education and maybe the skill of knowing how to read. In a larger sense, privilege in 1780 meant the same thing that it means today: what the color of your skin is. As a white female from Troy, I could never begin to understand. But when the same issue with privilege is still prevalent over 200 years later, I have to wonder what we’re not doing right.