'Invisible privileges' are unfair advantages given only to a dominant group. Whites, males, Christians, heterosexuals and attractive people are just a few of the groups popularly thought of to receive invisible privilege. For example, a White woman who forgot to pack concealer for vacation can easily run to a drug store and find a cover up that will match her skin color, where as Blacks and Latinos would probably have a much harder time unless they went to a department store and paid a lot more money. Because Whites are a dominant group they don't have to deal with as much nonsense as minority groups. Lets be clear though that invisible privileges are not the fault of an individual but the result of society's belief that dominant groups are the norm. Invisible privileges are systematic and institutionalized and therefore we cannot blame anybody for invisible privilege.
I work at a restaurant where all of the servers are at least second-generation Americans whose first languages are English. However the majority of the kitchen and maintenance staff are from Mexico or Africa. The other day I was talking to one of these 'back of house' people and he said how he felt he worked too much and didn't make enough money and he was jealous of how much money the servers make. Without thinking I said something along the lines of "Well, you can't serve you don't speak English." We were clearly speaking in English (although he has a thick accent) but I just didn't think anything of it. The next day the guy told me that what I said had hurt his feelings. I told him I didn't mean for it to be hurtful and that I personally wouldn't mind if he was a server but managers and customers would probably not be too fond of the idea due to his accent. This made me think of the invisible privileges that native English speakers in America have. This example clearly relates to job opportunities however we can also ask for direction without being asked to repeat ourselves a few times, we can show up at school and expect our professors to speak our language and the list goes on.
I'm sure this is not the first time someone with an accent has felt left out or uncomfortable in the dominant group of English speakers in America, it probably won't be the last either. Not until our institutions are remodeled in order to break down the concept of invisible privilege, for example I had not learned in depth about invisible privilege until college, if things like this were taught at an earlier level of schooling it would be easier for people to acknowledge and try to avoid abusing their unearned"privileges".
