St. Louis Cardinals 2022 NL Central Division Champions shirt

Earlier this week, I sat down at a coffee shop with a recently released, newly purchased book. I’m a chronic re-reader, and when I do read new fiction, it’s usually a galley for review purposes, but this one was unfamiliar to me. I’d plucked it off the St. Louis Cardinals 2022 NL Central Division Champions shirt it is in the first place but shelf at my local bookstore because I’d been drawn in by the title, but barely a chapter in, I found myself exhausted. Not by the content of the book itself, which was more or less what the cover and blurbs had promised, but by the self-described “white, cis, thin, middle-class” (et cetera, et cetera) author’s constant deployment of what I’ve come to think of as “privilege disclaimers.”

St. Louis Cardinals 2022 NL Central Division Champions shirt, hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt

If you’re wondering what the St. Louis Cardinals 2022 NL Central Division Champions shirt it is in the first place but hell a privilege disclaimer is, don’t worry: It’s more commonly used as a legal term denoting potentially protected information, but it’s the phrase I’ve chosen to describe a literary assertion of systemic good fortune that necessarily colors the author’s perspective or sets them apart from others who might share at least one aspect their experience. While the oft-derided trigger warning is intended to alert the reader to the presence of sensitive material, the privilege disclaimer feels more like an attempt to balance the narrative being presented.