When We Acknowledge Privilege, We All Win

What Meryl Streep taught us about privilege.

The Golden Globes are a seventy-four-year-old tradition of glitz and glam. The Hollywood’s elite win awards for their works and cram in their rushed thanks, before being played off by awards-music. This year presented a nice change of pace, with Meryl Streep boldly and bravely using her speech to condemn hateful rhetoric, emphasize the importance of diversity, and highlight the responsibility of recognizing and utilizing privilege. In her speech, Streep said, “Once, when I was standing around on the set one day, whining about something — you know we were gonna work through supper or the long hours or whatever, Tommy Lee Jones said to me, “Isn’t it such a privilege, Meryl, just to be an actor?” Yeah, it is, and we have to remind each other of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy.”

Mrs. Streep did much more than just condemn the abuse of privilege, she exhibited what it means to own and utilize your privilege. While a lot of people vehemently agreed with Streep’s point, one only has to look to Twitter to find hundreds of contrary opinions. What’s significant about her speech is not what she said, but that she was able to express her opinions. She took her time to spotlight injustice and stand up for marginalized peoples. Everyone has a voice, but not all voices have equal reach. Allies, using their platform in ways like Meryl Streep has, are pivotal to creating change. A core part of Allinium’s mission is creating corporate cultures where people with power, position and authority are empowered to act as allies, and advocate for workplace equality. Allinium recognizes the importance of allies as actors for change. Employee Resource Groups have worked for a long time to ignite change in their workplaces, but without creating an open dialogue and engaging allies, we can’t expect a significant change to happen.