After being asked to view Carolyn Luby’s open letter to UConn President, Susan Herbst from an intersectional perspective and reviewing the article for a third time, it is almost impossible not to notice Luby’s privilege. Not that this is a bad thing, nor does it lessen her argument about the university’s need to take action against cases of violence against women. As we read in A Primer on Privilege, privilege is not bad or inherently wrong. Rather, it is how society caters to us or neglects us due to our gender, sexuality, race, ability, etc. However, it is important to recognize privilege and understand the perspective from which a person writes. Privilege becomes dangerous only when we deny it. In this case, Carolyn is a non-person of color, non-LGBT, cis woman who is able to afford higher education. It’s interesting to consider how Luby’s letter would be received if any of these aspects of her social identity were altered.

                  I find it most interesting to consider if Luby was writing from the perspective of a non-student. How would her being a working-class and uneducated effect the backlash she received for writing the letter? As mentioned in the Class and Power reading, those with socioeconomic privilege are typically wealthy, or at least financially stable, and fortunate enough to be able to afford higher education. This means those in the lower-middle class and below are extremely marginalized. They’re also typically attributed the characteristics of being uneducated and unintelligent because they are unable to pursue an education. Luby’s concerns about sexual violence on UConn’s campus probably would’ve been disregarded all together if she was 1) not a UConn student or 2) a working-class woman who hadn’t received education past a high school diploma. She probably would not have been taken seriously due to her lack of formal education. People also probably wouldn’t be concerned with an outsider’s opinion of the UConn community; how can someone who doesn’t attend the school attest to faults in the institution? Luby’s privilege as a student and member of the middle class greatly influences her article and how it was received.

                  It’s also important to recognize Luby’s racial privilege. We should take into account that Luby is a white woman and how different her letter would be received if she had been a person of color. For example, if Carolyn Luby was an African American woman, the responses to her article would have been riddled with racial slurs and dehumanizing threats. Luby is at a disadvantage because of her identity as a woman, however it is nothing compared to the disadvantage women of color experience. Even though, as we learned in The Power of Illusion, race is entirely socially constructed. Regardless of race, we are all 99.9% genetically identical. Yet, America was founded on the enslavement of a race that our white founders found inferior. The response to Luby’s article probably would have been much more violent and racially charged if she was not a white woman. This is not to say the backlash Luby received was any less serious or horrifying. Luby did not deserve to receive death threats and rape threats. Her criticism of UConn’s athletic department should not have elicited a violent response.