"It was easy not to worry about local social stratification erstwhile it was on top of it." I read that good conviction a twelve years ago, but to this day I inactive remember that mix of glare and relief. It called what I felt for a long time. erstwhile I tried to express my feelings, I heard, “You are overreacting.” "Come on, there's no good in talking like that." Or, “You Belarusians inactive don’t like something.” It was akin erstwhile in simple school the teacher instructed the on-call individual to wash the school towels, but erstwhile the on-caller turned out to be a boy, she ordered the next girl to do so. My protest was outraged by both teachers and parents. My friends understood, but they didn't have the assurance to support me. possibly I'm actually looking for a gap all over? – I thought.
Privileges usually neglect to see their privilege. present I know that this is not the product of my frustration, but a well described reflection of social sciences. That erstwhile you are a white man from a large city, the “glass ceiling” or the pay inequality can easy be dispelled by the message that everyone is the smith of their fate. That you can't see the looks of fellow displaced persons on the post-war "earths recovered" erstwhile you pull out a sausage sandwich. And that this deficiency of sight happens automatically, as if our brain cares about a coherent and comfortable view of the planet and beneficial self-image.
The last example and the quote at the beginning came from Anna's book Exile Resettlement and memory. survey of social memory on the example of Ukrainian Galicia and Polish “earth recovered”. It presents investigation of a recognized scientist, published in the prestigious series of Monographs of the Foundation for Polish Science. erstwhile I read this, the technological authority in my eyes gave credibility to what, as my own experience, I inactive invalidated. The town of the Cross (Kreuz) afraid the book, in addition to the change of nationality after 1945, besides changed residents. "Our educators set up that they should not be teased" – those who, as children, arrived from central Poland after crossing the front. Their families occupied the best farms and the highest position in the local hierarchy. They were to “not tease” displaced people from the east, mainly from the Ukrainian SRR brought to the remaining, i.e. the worst farms. Not only did the mediocre say "in Russian", so they landed on the bottom of the social ladder. According to their stories, “locals” supported visiting peers to “as rapidly as possible get active in this good speech.” They explained the rules of local life, shared sandwiches they didn't have. Beautiful, isn't it? Yes, but only in “local” stories.
The children of displaced people from the east remembered this differently. They told the investigator about ridicule, school ostracism, teacher discrimination. “We stood on both sides of the corridor against the wall, so that on the 1 hand these strangers, the Auslanders, like me, from the east, and on the another hand those from Drawska, from Wielicania. [...] They stand against 1 wall, each holding a puddle of white bread in their hands, covered with a corresponding sausage, eat. And we, the outside, on the another hand, without breakfast... We watched them eat. That's what I remember today...” Sounds familiar. The community I belong to – the Belarusian and Orthodox number in Podlasie – is simply a different story, but I knew many akin stories. erstwhile individual tried to talk out about it, he heard, “You are overreacting.” From what I read, it was no exaggeration or fabrication. The dominant majority simply remembers the same events differently than the minority. And that it does not invalidate the position of the others. any remember sharing a sandwich with a poorer friend, others remember “we watched them eat.”
Subsequent readings allowed me to realize and to call it a continuous “searching for a gap throughout.” The position of my experience was number on respective levels: Orthodox Belarusian female on the Podlaskie borderland, women, and besides people from the countryside. Importantly, in terms of the dominant majority and the subordinate minority, it is simply a position in the social hierarchy, not a real number. Domination takes place by controlling the resources and rules of the social game, with peculiar emphasis on symbolic violence. This, as French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu writes, is simply a subtle form of dominance in which the norms and the full image of the planet imposed by the majority become "obvious", even "natural" and as specified is accepted besides by the subordinates. So "natural" is washing cloths by girls or higher earnings for men than for women for the same work. erstwhile individual tries to question it, he hears, “You are overreacting”, “You are hysterical” or “You, the Belarusians, inactive don’t like something.” And everything stays in place.
From a number position you see a different image of the planet than from that dominant one. This is simply a “second side”, a hidden shadow that most people frequently do not want to see or cannot see. They usually neglect to announcement their privileged position and what is active with it. This happens even when, as activists, they work to reduce social inequalities.
How these mechanisms work in practice is fascinatingly revealed by Anna Zawadzka in the book Bitter, issued in 2025. This is simply a evidence of the experience of the Polish sociologist who, incapable to support herself from her technological salary, leaves for Berlin and is employed as an unskilled worker. With a scientist she becomes a migrant from east Europe, constantly disciplined and humiliated. He has frequently educated idealists from wealthy homes as roommates. In theory, they know everything about discrimination, but “they tend to be absolutely blind to class differences.” They do not think of their existence, for if they saw them, they would gotta see their own privilege. And that seems the hardest.
Could this make it easier to mention to experiences from another areas of reality where we are in an unprivileged position? Or reading, like the readings mentioned here? I'm sure. But read with openness, even erstwhile they become uncomfortable. How about that?
