Pride and Privilege: How Do We Sensitively Navigate and Appreciate Having More Than Others?

One of the enduring truths of human society is that the pie of privilege is not equally distributed. Some of us have economic privilege, some of us racial privilege, some of us social capital, some of us happy partnerships and families, and some of us all of the above and more. We should, of course, feel grateful for what we have, and hopefully we do. But on the other hand, the unequal distribution of privilege often makes us and other people uncomfortable, resentful, or worse. The Covid-19 era has intensified many of these disparities and social media has made it ever easier to put our good fortune on display or experience the pain of watching others succeed where we have not. In this class, the Orange County Community Scholar Program explores some Torah-guided approaches to thinking about and navigating enduring inequality sanely and sensitively.