A speaker realized his male privilege gave him automatic authority in workshops that women didn't have. When female audience members pointed out they struggled to be heard despite the same skills, he reconsidered his advice and started actively seeking perspectives he'd missed.
Privilege is a dangerous thing if people don't know they have it. Because they can think it's easy to relate to people with— like, you're asking a good question there— when they're assuming they know everybody's life. So I'll give you an example. I used to get in front of the room and talk about speaking and say, hey, if you just take these steps, it's going to be super easy. And what happened was a few people pulled me aside and said, because you're a guy, they all listen to you. I'm like, what? They're like, yeah, if I take the same strategy, I struggle with the room to get their attention as a woman. And I'm going, oh, ah, wow, I'm glad you told me that because now I want to help you get— I want to— so let's work together to help give you the skills you need. But I didn't even know what I didn't know, right? And so once I did, I could try to better relate and understand the situation. So I'm always looking to figure out what do I not know about other people's worlds, lives, so I get better.
