Little White World
Welcome to my happy little white world.
Here I can spend money like its water on things like…bottled water.
Americano please. 12oz. to freedom. 2 shots. No, I don’t need room for cream.
Confession: I am paid too go to school. $1,400 dollars to be exact (that’s above and beyond my tuition which was another $1,000). That’s per quarter. 4 quarters a year. You do the math.
I have a choice of whether or not I want to “make it” in this society. The fact that I can choose to live within a certain income bracket is more privilege than I know what to do with. I can choose riches, for now I’ve chosen “poverty”. The key word here is choice and I have the luxury of exercising it.
Don’t read this wrong, I’m more than grateful for the class I was born into. But its not like I did anything to get here. What I have was chosen for me as soon as I was born white, American and middle class.
Forgive me for my lack of contextualization. For the time being, I don’t have the gusto to frame this rant for you. These thoughts are the left over residue from the propaganda I am deluged with on a daily basis. Not to say that these thoughts are completely wrong, buts they’re definitely not completely right either (there I go, trying to see everything as “right” and “wrong”, life’s just not that simple).
Where do you live and what’s your privilege?
Here I can spend money like its water on things like…bottled water.
Americano please. 12oz. to freedom. 2 shots. No, I don’t need room for cream.
Confession: I am paid too go to school. $1,400 dollars to be exact (that’s above and beyond my tuition which was another $1,000). That’s per quarter. 4 quarters a year. You do the math.
I have a choice of whether or not I want to “make it” in this society. The fact that I can choose to live within a certain income bracket is more privilege than I know what to do with. I can choose riches, for now I’ve chosen “poverty”. The key word here is choice and I have the luxury of exercising it.
Don’t read this wrong, I’m more than grateful for the class I was born into. But its not like I did anything to get here. What I have was chosen for me as soon as I was born white, American and middle class.
Forgive me for my lack of contextualization. For the time being, I don’t have the gusto to frame this rant for you. These thoughts are the left over residue from the propaganda I am deluged with on a daily basis. Not to say that these thoughts are completely wrong, buts they’re definitely not completely right either (there I go, trying to see everything as “right” and “wrong”, life’s just not that simple).
Where do you live and what’s your privilege?
posted by Corey at 12:32 AM
2 Comments:
Corey,
This reminds me a lot of the thoughts I have because of one of the classes I'm taking: Developing Cultural, Racial, and Ethnic Identitities. It is interesting how you differently you begin to see things when you hear another persons' story. I'll email you a response I wrote for the class. It's not the best work, but it's along these lines. Peace.
Everyday I go to work and meet the people life has broken. They were either born into a loveless life, used and abused by those who should have nutured them, or experienced the horrors that life can throw so unexpectedly.
What is my priviledge? To have known love. To have been nutured as a precious gift entrusted to my family, to have come to know the grace that redeems me, and to have had the priviledge of passing on the love I have known.
Everyday I am thankful for the priviledged life, a priviledge that comes with responsibilty.
Corey, I see in you someone who does not take that responsibilty lightly. You have not just made the choice to live in poverty... you make the choice to stand alongside those who have to live in poverty as they have no choice.
Post a Comment
<< Home