what is privilege?

simply put, privilege is when one person/group has unfair advantage due to opportunities available only to that person/group. people can have privilege because of laws that are passed (or still on the books), bias presented in news stories, hiring practices, personal cultural capital, and countless other ways. power is having (either personally or through group affiliation) privilege through ideological control, control of resources in society, ability to determine "normal," "real," and "correct," and the imposition of culture onto other groups. typically, when we have power and/or privilege, we are blind to it.
it is easy to see what we don't have and quite difficult to see what we do and how we got it. we have to re-train our brains, our biology and psychology to acknowledge our privilege, as well as the effects of our privilege. from a young age, we are taught to ignore differences and believe in equality. with such teachings, we successfully ignore advantage because we have been told too often it does not exist. we only notice this advantage when we do not have it or when we use it to taunt others.
i am reminded of the "survival of the fittest" theory...biologically, any advantage we have as humans will help us survive. that is biologically though, not socially. advantage given to us socially does not mean we are biologically fittest. social advantage is based on choice and hierarchy. the choice to exault one group over another. the choice to advantage some and simultaneously disadvantage others. biologically, we have all survived. socially, we have not accepted this survival as the biological sign that we all should be here--equally.

i am tired of hearing privilege is having a job or that a person should feel privileged to have a job. unless the job was given based on unfair hiring practices...for instance, if a job was never posted and the owner of the company is having dinner with friends, the friends mention their child doesn't have a job, and the owner agrees to hire this person because their families have been friends so long. something like that is privilege. where people who were qualified for the job didn't even get the opportunity to apply for such a position. instead, a person's social capital granted them this job unfairly. in this case, having this job is an example of privilege. not a privilege as in it's an honor.
i am tired of hearing examples like this because the fundamental definition is different. when you use an example under a different definition yet apply it to the original situation, you are just creating chaos. in the messiness of such chaos, it is easy to dismiss having privilege.
changing the definition of privilege to avoid acknowledging you have it is just a perfectly logical explanation (ple) and more specifically, an excuse. this ple is like an ostrich who just sticks its head in the sand--it doesn't work and it doesn't take away reality. end of story.