The Privilege Pyramid: Redefining Power, Reimagining Equity

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The Illusion of a Level-Playing Field

Imagine a kaleidoscope—a dynamic, shifting interplay of radiant light and colour, where each turn reveals a breathtakingly unique pattern.

This is the power of intersectionality: unapologetically complex, infinitely resilient, and brimming with untapped potential.

Last week, we explored how the Intersectional Majority—the 99.5% of people whose lives are shaped by overlapping systems of privilege and marginalisation—has historically been pushed to the edges of leadership, innovation, and power.

Yet, as we discussed, brilliance flourishes in the very margins, resilience is born, and the opportunity to rewrite the rules of inclusion emerges.

This week, we take it further.

If the Intersectional Majority has the power to transform leadership, then privilege—often misunderstood and weaponised in conversations about inequality—can potentially be the key to systemic transformation.

But first, we have to understand it.

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What Privilege Means

Imagine two runners in a race.

🏃 One starts on a clear, even track—no obstacles, just open space ahead.
🏃 The other starts on uneven terrain, filled with hurdles.

The second runner isn’t weaker, slower, or less capable—they just had a different starting point.

What if the first runner doesn’t even realise they had a head start? To them, it just feels like a typical race.

That’s a privilege.

🔹 It’s not an insult.
🔹 It’s not an attack.
🔹 It’s an advantage you may not notice because you’ve always had it.

For many, the word privilege sparks defensiveness.

Some reject it outright, believing they earned everything through hard work alone.
Others assume it’s a weapon of blame, a way to make them feel guilty for circumstances beyond their control.

But privilege is neither good nor bad—it simply exists.

✅ It doesn’t mean you’ve never struggled—just that some struggles weren’t built into the system against you.
✅ It’s not something you asked for—but it’s something you can choose to use.
✅ It’s not about guilt—it’s about responsibility.

Privilege isn’t black and white.
It isn’t binary.
It isn’t a simple case of "you have it" or "you don’t."

Most people have both privilege and marginalisation in different areas of their identity.

I know this because I live it.

My Own Kaleidoscope of Privilege and Marginalisation

I am a Black, gay, neurodivergent (dyslexic & SpLD) English-Ghanaian man.
I have navigated spaces where I was unseen, unheard, and underestimated.
💡 As a Black person, I know what it means to be overlooked, misjudged, and racially profiled.
💡 As a gay man, I have experienced homophobia, microaggressions, and societal pressures to conform.
💡 As someone with dyslexia and specific learning difficulties (SpLD), I’ve been labelled as slow, incapable, or needing to "try harder."

But I also hold privilege—and I use it intentionally.
✅ I am male. I don’t walk home at night with my keys clenched between my fingers.
✅ I am cisgender. My identity isn’t constantly questioned or legislated against.
✅ I am highly educated. I have diplomas and certifications that automatically give me credibility in certain rooms.
✅ I live in London, where I can access resources, networks, and career opportunities that others don’t have.

I never asked for these privileges. I didn’t earn them like I fought for other parts of my identity.
But I choose to use them.
🔹 I use my male privilege in small but powerful ways—falling back a bit when walking behind a lone woman at night, crossing the road to reassure her I’m not a threat.
🔹 I use my educational privilege to open doors for others, mentor marginalised professionals, and amplify intersectional voices.
🔹 I use my London privilege to create global networks, share resources, and connect people with opportunities.

Because privilege isn’t about guilt—it’s about what you do with it.

The Privilege Pyramid: A Blueprint for Understanding Power

Privilege isn’t just an individual experience—it’s a systemic structure. To understand it, we must examine how power has historically been distributed and maintained.

Meet Fitz: The Walking Embodiment of Privilege

He’s rarer than a billionaire who actually pays taxes.
Rarer than someone who’s climbed Everest without posting about it.
Rarer than someone struck by lightning—twice—and still buying lottery tickets.

Meet Fitz.

Fitz isn’t just privileged—he is privilege personified.

💰 Born into wealth—his first financial struggle was choosing between trust funds.
🎓 Educated at elite institutions—not because of merit, but because his surname was already engraved on a campus building.
🤝 Connected through robust networks—his “hard work” started with a handshake at his dad’s golf club.

Fitz never has to wonder if he belongs—he’s been assured of it since birth.
He never has to “work twice as hard” to prove himself—his mere presence is proof enough.
The world isn’t just designed for Fitz—it was practically gift-wrapped for him.

💼 He never wonders if he belongs in the boardroom.
🎙 He never has to prove his intelligence before he speaks.
⚖️ He never questions if his rights, safety, or dignity are up for debate.

Fitz is the 0.5%.
Society isn’t just designed for Fitz—it was built by people like him, for people like him.

Fitz’s Identity Grants Him Nine Layers of Privilege:
✅ White – No racial bias against him in job interviews, law enforcement, or media representation.
✅ Male – No gender-based glass ceiling or safety concerns walking home at night.
✅ Cisgender – His gender identity is never questioned, debated, or legislated against.
✅ Heterosexual – No fear of losing rights based on whom he loves.
✅ Able-bodied – Every public space, workplace, and policy accommodates his physical abilities.
✅ Neurotypical – No stigma around how he processes information or communicates.
✅ Affluent – He’s never had to choose between rent and healthcare.
✅ Highly Educated – His degrees are assumed to reflect competence, not prove he "earned" his seat.
✅ Native English Speaker – His accent is never seen as a global business or leadership barrier.

Fitz isn’t “bad.” He isn’t evil.
But his privilege is invisible—to him.
And that’s the point.

The Historical Blueprint of Privilege: Who Was Power Built For?

Privilege isn’t new. It didn’t start with race and wasn’t invented in modern society—it has been a feature of civilisation for as long as humans have formed hierarchies.

1. The First Privilege: The Gendered Power Divide

Before race became a defining privilege factor, gender shaped access to power.

🔹 Men were historically the first group to wield systemic privilege—long before racial hierarchies were constructed, they controlled leadership, property, and decision-making power.
🔹 Women and non-male identities were legally, politically, and economically excluded from power for thousands of years.

💼 For centuries, women were considered legal property of their fathers or husbands.
🎓 Until recent history, education was reserved for men in most societies.
⚖️ Laws were written by men, for men, and enforced in ways that privileged male perspectives.

Example: In ancient Greece—the birthplace of democracy—women weren’t even considered citizens. They had no voting rights, property rights, or legal standing outside their fathers or husbands.

The gendered power gap was the first systemic privilege structure—one that still exists today, even in societies that claim gender equality.

2. The Class Barrier: Wealth as the Original Gatekeeper

Long before capitalism, access to wealth, land, and inherited resources determined who had influence and who did not.

🏛 In feudal societies, nobility controlled land, law, and labour.
🏡 Peasants, serfs, and working-class individuals had no social mobility, regardless of race or ethnicity.
📜 The wealthy passed down privilege through generations, ensuring their descendants remained at the top.

Example: In medieval Europe, only aristocratic men could own land or hold government positions. A poor white man had as little power as a poor Black man today—because class, not race, was the defining structure of privilege at the time.

💡 This is why Fitz’s privilege isn’t just about race—it’s about inherited access to wealth, networks, and generational stability.

From Privilege by Birth to Privilege by Design

As societies evolved, the structures of privilege expanded and layered.

📌 Gendered power turned into legal and political dominance.
📌 Class-based exclusion became economic gatekeeping.
📌 Colonisation, imperialism, and capitalism further entrenched privilege into global systems.

Privilege today isn’t about individual morality—it’s about systemic design.

And that’s where Fitz and Amara come in.

Meet Amara: The Architect of Change

If Fitz represents privilege, Amara represents power—unbreakable, unapologetic, and undeniable.

She doesn’t move through the world with ease. She moves through it with force.

She doesn’t wait for doors to open—she builds new ones.

🚀 She innovates because she has to. When the system offers no blueprint for her survival, she drafts her own.
🚀 She builds community because isolation isn’t an option. Strength isn’t found in solitude—it’s forged in collective action.
🚀 She leads movements because survival demands more than resilience. It demands revolution.
🚀 She embodies defiance. The world expects her to shrink, to be grateful for scraps. Instead, she expands, she claims, she thrives.

Amara isn’t invisible.
She isn’t weak.
She isn’t waiting for permission.

🔥 She is a creator—designing solutions where none exist.
🔥 She is a survivor—refusing to be erased.
🔥 She is a disruptor—dismantling systems from the inside out.

"When you are excluded from power, you learn how to create it yourself."

But the truth is—she shouldn’t have to.

The Barriers Amara Battles Daily

Amara doesn’t just carry one form of marginalisation—she carries them all.

👤 Who is Amara?

❌ She is Black. Her competence is questioned, her intelligence underestimated, her presence mistaken for a threat.
❌ She is a woman. She faces gendered expectations, workplace discrimination, and the ever-present fear of violence.
❌ She is transgender. Her very right to exist is debated in boardrooms, policies, and medical systems designed without her in mind.
❌ She is queer. Who she loves isn’t just a personal truth—it’s a risk, a potential cause for rejection or criminalisation.
❌ She is disabled. Every step, every space, every opportunity was designed with someone else in mind, making survival a daily act of rebellion.
❌ She is neurodivergent. She navigates a world that labels her mind an obstacle instead of an asset.
❌ She is poor. The myth of meritocracy was never meant for those without wealth, safety nets, or the privilege to “just work harder.”
❌ She is undereducated. Not because she lacks intelligence, but because the system locked her out before she had the chance to prove it.
❌ She is a non-native English speaker. She translates her thoughts into a language that wasn’t built for her, constantly proving she belongs in conversations that should have been hers from the start.

When Fitz walks into a room, the world adjusts to accommodate him.
When Amara enters a room, the world demands she prove she belongs—if she’s even allowed in.

🚪 Doors slam shut before she reaches them.
💼 She has to be twice as qualified to get half as far.
⚖️ Her rights are constantly debated, legislated, and restricted.

And yet—she rises.

Because power doesn’t belong to Fitz alone.
Power belongs to the Intersectional Majority—the 99.5% who refuse to stay invisible.

Amara isn’t asking for a seat at the table—she’s designing a new blueprint.

Are you ready to follow her lead?

Fitz & Amara: Two Opposite Realities, One Shared World

Imagine Fitz and Amara in the same room.
🌍 Fitz moves through life effortlessly, unaware of the invisible escalators carrying him forward.
🌍 Amara fights against currents that were never meant to let her through.

Fitz has never had to prove his intelligence before he speaks.
Amara was dismissed before she even opened her mouth.

Fitz has unspoken access to power.
Amara has had to fight for every inch of recognition.

And here’s the thing: Fitz’s and Amara’s worlds are not separate. They are intertwined.
💡 Privilege isn’t a personal failing. It’s a structural advantage.
💡 Marginalisation isn’t a personal weakness. It’s a systemic barrier.

So the question isn’t "Does privilege exist?"
The question is, "What do we do with it?"

The goal isn’t to strip Fitz of his power.
The goal is to ensure Amara doesn’t have to fight for hers.

Because privilege is a tool, power is a choice. And together, we can redesign the system so that both Fitz and Amara thrive.

The Privilege Pyramid: A Blueprint for Understanding Power

Now, let’s zoom out. Fitz sits at the pyramid's pinnacle, Amara at the base, and where does everyone else exist?

1. The Privileged Core: The World’s Default Setting

At the top of the pyramid, the Fitzes of the world live easily.
🚪 Doors open before they even knock.
💼 Their intelligence is assumed before they speak.
🎓 Opportunities exist for them that others must fight twice as hard for.

But Fitz isn’t the only archetype. Consider Priya, a wealthy, cisgender, non-disabled woman of colour who benefits from class privilege but faces gender and racial bias. Or Carlos, a gay, neurotypical man who holds male privilege but navigates homophobia.
Privilege isn’t about blaming individuals but recognising how systems favour some over others.

2. The Middle Layers: Where Privilege and Marginalisation Coexist

This is where most people exist—holding privilege in some areas while facing barriers in others.
🗣️ "I grew up poor, so I don’t have privilege!" → But your gender, race, or nationality still offered advantages.
🗣️ "I worked hard for everything I have!" → So did many others who weren’t given the same chances.

Privilege isn’t absolute—it is situational, dynamic, and intersectional.

3. The Marginalised Base: The Amaras of the World

At the pyramid's base are those like Amara, who face systemic barriers in every aspect of their lives.
Their resilience is extraordinary, but it shouldn’t have to be.

The Intersectional Majority: The Real Power Lies Here

While the Privileged Core represents a small fraction of society, the vast majority—99.5%—exists outside of it. This is The Intersectional Majority—the people who, despite facing systemic barriers, continue to thrive, build, innovate, and push society forward.
👩🏽‍🔬 Women, LGBTQ+ individuals, disabled communities, racialised minorities
💡 Neurodivergent thinkers, working-class individuals, immigrants, refugees

Why does this matter?
✅ Power is not finite. Giving someone else access doesn’t take away from anyone else—it expands possibilities for everyone.
✅ Privilege is not a zero-sum game. More inclusion doesn’t mean exclusion for others—we all benefit from diverse perspectives.
✅ Equity is not charity—it’s strategy. Companies, societies, and movements thrive when all voices are valued, not just a few.

Flipping the Script: How to Use Privilege to Empower Others

The goal isn’t to dismantle privilege—it’s to redirect it toward equity and transformation. Here’s how we do that:

1. Reframe Privilege as a Responsibility, Not a Burden

Privilege isn’t something you need to apologise for—it’s something you need to be conscious of.
✅ Example: A man uses his male privilege to advocate for gender-neutral parental leave policies.

2. Turn Gatekeeping into Gateway Building

Gatekeeping sustains inequity. But privilege can be leveraged to open doors.
✅ Example: A white executive mentors Black professionals to ensure they have access to leadership pipelines.

3. Build Intersectional Coalitions

Real change happens when marginalised communities join forces.
✅ Example: A coalition of climate justice activists, disabled rights groups, and low-income communities fighting environmental racism.

4. Amplify, Don’t Overshadow

If you hold privilege in a particular space, your job isn’t to speak for marginalised groups—it’s to create platforms where their voices are heard.
✅ Example: Invite someone with lived experience to take the mic instead of leading every diversity conversation.

5. Challenge Systemic Inequities

Individual actions matter, but systemic change is essential.
✅ Advocate for policies like pay transparency, anti-discrimination laws, and accessible public spaces.
✅ Support organisations that address structural inequities, such as racial justice initiatives or disability rights groups.

The Future: Privilege Without Exclusivity

Imagine a world where…

✅ Privilege isn’t hoarded but shared.
✅ Power isn’t a gatekeeper but a gateway.
✅ Equity isn’t an afterthought—it’s the foundation of progress.

This is the vision of Intersectional Futurism™—a framework that reimagines power and privilege as tools for collective transformation. It’s not about who “deserves” success—it’s about building systems where everyone has the access, resources, and opportunities to thrive.

A Prominent—but Surprising—Example: The Polio Vaccine

In 1955, Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine—a discovery that could have made him billions. Pharmaceutical companies lined up, ready to patent it. But when asked who owned the patent, Salk famously responded:

"There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

Instead of profiting, he ensured free global access to the vaccine, eradicating polio in much of the world. His privilege—his education, research funding, and scientific access—wasn’t used to hoard power, but to distribute it.

Imagine if we applied that same logic to education, healthcare, wealth, and leadership.

What if privilege wasn’t a barrier, but a bridge?
What if power wasn’t about exclusion, but about expansion?

This isn’t just an ideal—it’s a roadmap.

It’s time to redefine privilege.
To rebuild systems that uplift rather than exclude.
To create a future where no one has to fight for what should have been theirs all along.

Intersectional Futurism™ is not about taking power away.
It’s about making sure power reaches everyone.

Call to Action: Be Part of the Change

This isn’t just an article—it’s a movement. A new way of thinking about power, privilege, and impact.

1. Discover Your Privilege & Mindscape
   👉 Take the Assessment Now →

2. Share Your Story
   Use #IntersectionalMajority to reflect on how privilege has shaped your journey.

3. Join the Conversation
   Be part of a community that sees intersectionality as a strength, not a division.

The world doesn’t change on its own—we build it together.

About the Author

I do what I do because the pain of marginalisation and exclusion is not just an abstract concept to me—it’s deeply personal. Every act of inequity, every silenced voice, and every denied opportunity is a wound that I feel, a fracture that demands healing. This isn’t just my profession; it’s my purpose. My work is bridging divides, amplifying the voices of the unheard, and reimagining a world where no one is unseen or erased.

I believe that heartbreak can be transformed into action, that exclusion can be rewritten into empowerment, and that understanding is the foundation of accurate equity. Through my work, I am committed to turning these convictions into reality—one conversation, one framework, and one radical act of inclusion at a time."

🌍 Discover more: www.bempongtalkingtherapy.com