Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa Roxane Gay Reads An Essay From Her Book, Bad Feminist
Mar 10, 2026
Roxane Gay, author, cultural critic, and professor, reads from Bad Feminist and reflects on privilege. She recounts trips to Haiti and how an American passport shaped her views. She defines different forms of privilege and wrestles with being both advantaged and marginalized. She challenges online privilege policing and urges listeners to start acknowledging relative privilege.
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Childhood Trips That Taught Privilege
- Roxane Gay recounts childhood trips to Haiti that taught her about absolute poverty and American privilege.
- She describes men and women mobbing their car for dollars, sprawling slums beside beaches, and the striking contrast with the nearby United States.
Privilege Is A Peculiar Benefit
- Roxane Gay defines privilege as a peculiar benefit and lists many forms including racial, gender, economic, and educational privilege.
- She names specific advantages she held: elite schools, funded graduate degrees, tenure-track job, and financial stability.
Acknowledge Privilege Without Erasing Harm
- Gay explains that acknowledging privilege doesn't erase marginalization or suffering and is an ongoing personal project.
- She lists daily reminders of marginalization like parking-lot questioning, street harassment, and strangers touching her hair.
