W4 – PROPERTY AS WHITENESS, GENDER AND
PRIVELEGE
“The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than
the revenges of poverty and oppression. For the one aims at perpetuating
resented injustice, the other is merely a momentary passion soon appeased.”
― C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San
Domingo Revolution
HOW CAN WE DEFINE PRIVELEGE?
‘Lines of privilege need clear demarcations: people seek to know race and
sex at first glance. Similarly, we expect everyone to fall promptly within
the appropriate box of class and sexuality.’ - (Bela Walker, ‘Privilege as
Property’, p 50)
We might think of these for how privilege is proven by someone:
o Access,
o Expectation,
o Appropriation,
o Exclusion.
Jeremy Bentham: the whole purpose of law is to support our expectations.
Law has to be certain. The question is, who has secure legal expectations
in property?
CASE STUDY: Colonialism – The Gweagal Shield:
o Here is the description of the British Museum:
‘Bark shield: this shield represents the moment of first contact
between the British and Aboriginal Australians at Botany Bay in
1770. When James Cook and his men tried to land, two men of the
Gweagal people came forward with spears. Cook fired musket
shots and hit a man who then grabbed what was likely this shield in
defence. As the wounded man retreated the shield was dropped on
the beach. First contacts in the Pacific were often tense and
violent.’
Another description, by Keenan, p289: reproduces the colonial logic
of white British cultural experts making decisions for the benefit of
indigenous communities…’ and denies ‘colonial reparations of the
most basic kind’.
‘Kelly explained in his letter to the British Museum, since that day
on the beach in 1770, Aboriginal Australians have had their land,
their language, their health and their culture stolen by British
colonial forces and their white Australian descendants. The
Gweagal shield is something that a contemporary British institution
can actually give back.’ (Keenan, ‘The Gweagal Shield’, p 285)
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH PROPERTY LAW:
o Cultural property questions: who owns it, and how? I.E. BIG
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOUND AND ACQUIRED. The finding is
not legal if an owner is still in existence. But the problem is it
happened during war.
o Also land law questions:
PRIVELEGE
“The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than
the revenges of poverty and oppression. For the one aims at perpetuating
resented injustice, the other is merely a momentary passion soon appeased.”
― C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San
Domingo Revolution
HOW CAN WE DEFINE PRIVELEGE?
‘Lines of privilege need clear demarcations: people seek to know race and
sex at first glance. Similarly, we expect everyone to fall promptly within
the appropriate box of class and sexuality.’ - (Bela Walker, ‘Privilege as
Property’, p 50)
We might think of these for how privilege is proven by someone:
o Access,
o Expectation,
o Appropriation,
o Exclusion.
Jeremy Bentham: the whole purpose of law is to support our expectations.
Law has to be certain. The question is, who has secure legal expectations
in property?
CASE STUDY: Colonialism – The Gweagal Shield:
o Here is the description of the British Museum:
‘Bark shield: this shield represents the moment of first contact
between the British and Aboriginal Australians at Botany Bay in
1770. When James Cook and his men tried to land, two men of the
Gweagal people came forward with spears. Cook fired musket
shots and hit a man who then grabbed what was likely this shield in
defence. As the wounded man retreated the shield was dropped on
the beach. First contacts in the Pacific were often tense and
violent.’
Another description, by Keenan, p289: reproduces the colonial logic
of white British cultural experts making decisions for the benefit of
indigenous communities…’ and denies ‘colonial reparations of the
most basic kind’.
‘Kelly explained in his letter to the British Museum, since that day
on the beach in 1770, Aboriginal Australians have had their land,
their language, their health and their culture stolen by British
colonial forces and their white Australian descendants. The
Gweagal shield is something that a contemporary British institution
can actually give back.’ (Keenan, ‘The Gweagal Shield’, p 285)
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH PROPERTY LAW:
o Cultural property questions: who owns it, and how? I.E. BIG
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOUND AND ACQUIRED. The finding is
not legal if an owner is still in existence. But the problem is it
happened during war.
o Also land law questions:
