I hope everyone who reads this is recovering from the effects of the storm and power outage and has the resources they need to go forward.  If you don’t, please let me know; I’m not sure I can do anything but I will try.

Beryl gave us a lot to unpack.  At first, I wanted to write about what the widespread power outage shows us about neoliberal capitalism.  But where I ended up is power and privilege.

My home didn’t lose electricity, internet, cell service or even a roof shingle in this storm.  Other than my immediate neighbors, ours is the only home in Houston I heard of that never lost anything.  To me, this is an example of privilege – an unearned set of advantages that gives one person or group relative power compared to another person or group.  Those of us who never lost utilities had unearned power that others didn’t have.  That gave us a whole host of collateral advantages:  we could eat healthy food, if that was our habit, or stress-eat ice cream because our fridge and freezer were unaffected.  We had access to news and information so that we knew which grocery stores didn’t lose power so we knew where to buy perishables safely.  We also knew how many people were without power, and that traffic lights were without power.  We knew where the flooding was, and that flooding wasn’t the primary issue.  We could let our loved ones know that we were okay.  We could check on people we loved by phone.

This is how privilege works.  White privilege, male privilege, cis gender / hetero privilege, and any other privilege bestowed upon us at birth or legislated upon us during our lifetimes.  We didn’t earn it.  We can’t decline it. 

Most of my neighbors who didn’t lose power, or who lost it for only a few hours, expressed feeling guilty that they had power, and they didn’t want to tell people who didn’t have power.  Unless they had a generator, they didn’t do anything to get power, so I don’t think the guilt is about having it; the guilt is about hoarding it.   Privilege is not our fault; power hoarding is. 

Here are some of the ways I heard people sharing their power:

• Running an extension cord across the street
• Inviting people into their home to charge devices, cool off, do laundry
• Inviting people into their home to use the internet, make phone calls or work from home
• Paying for someone they know to stay in a hotel
• Letting people sleep in their home
• Loaning people a generator
• Letting folks bring their kids and spouse to the air-conditioned office
• Giving people space in their fridge and freezer
• Watching other people’s children when the daycare centers lost power
• Inviting people over to swim
• Taking food to people with no way to cook

Feelings of guilt about having unearned privilege is destructive and keeps us from being in solidarity with people who don’t have that same privilege.  We can always find ways to share the power that comes with our privilege.