I am a passionate explorer of how power and privilege manifest in daily interactions, deeply embedded within our culture and internalised in our bodies

The impact of trauma passed down through generations is gaining more recognition. The focus often falls on communities that experience oppression. Resmaa Menakem, who views Racism through the lens of trauma, describes it as follows:

'Trauma decontextualized in a person looks like personality. Trauma decontextualized in a family looks like family traits. Trauma decontextualized in people looks like culture.'

I believe that when this trauma is held by the mainstream majority—the community with power—it becomes defined as "normal" and is preserved through generations. This is how privilege is created and maintained.

Often invisible and unquestioned, mainstream culture is "the way things are," the unquestioned paradigm beyond which it is difficult to imagine. It is like water to a fish or the air we breathe—it is only noticed when it is removed.

Examples include:

• Medical dosages and safety equipment designed primarily for male bodies (see 'Invisible Women' by Caroline Criado Perez)

• Seat belts and other safety features that do not account for diverse body types

• "Skin-tone" garments that do not reflect the diversity of actual skin tones

Whatever gets defined as ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable’ becomes a part of our everyday life. One useful definition of privilege is "the ability to define what is 'normal' and 'acceptable'", particularly regarding our bodies, beliefs, and behaviours. By creating these norms, we determine who is 'othered' and, consequently, who is excluded. Our characteristics that are perceived as 'normal' become deeply rooted in our identity and sense of belonging.

On a global scale, oppression and privilege are pervasive. There are very few places in the world where racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression are not present. These issues are a global phenomenon, not limited to any particular place or group.

Institutional and structural oppression and privilege operate within organisations, institutions, and political and economic systems. This includes the policies, rules, practices, and laws that result in visible disparities in wealth, employment, social justice, health, and more. For example, consider the higher COVID-19 death rates among people of colour, the over-representation of neurodivergent individuals in the criminal justice system, and the pay gap between men and women. These institutional and structural aspects are usually the focus of most policy discussions, strategies, and government initiatives.

Interactions between individuals and groups can perpetuate unfair advantages and harmful treatment based on characteristics such as race, gender, or disability. These interactions can be intentional or unintentional and include behaviours such as macro- and microaggressions, exclusion, targeting, physical, and verbal assault. Many people focus on these forms of oppression and privilege when discussing such Racism or Sexism.

Socialisation into privilege taps into our unconscious biases, such as affinity bias, negativity bias, and confirmation bias. These biases ensure that patterns of behaviour are deeply ingrained in our bodies and nervous systems.

Internalised oppression means we have absorbed societal views that diminish us, causing us to keep ourselves small. We've internalised and embodied these patterns, behaviours, and thoughts deeply within us, much like developmental traumas such as ACES, attachment trauma and other forms of trauma. We develop protective behaviour patterns, for that used to keep us safe, but now they remain even though they no longer serve that purpose. Undoing these patterns is often the focus of personal empowerment work.

Similarly, privilege is ingrained in our bodies from an early age, passed through generations as a sense of belonging and othering, linked closely with our identity and self-worth. This often-overlooked aspect of how oppression and privilege are unconsciously maintained is crucial to understand.

Recognising and changing these patterns requires ongoing effort and support. We cannot do this work alone.