I read this and wow, I don't like it at all.
I grew up in a family where my single mother struggled to pay the bills, and this quote sounds like a total cop-out to me. I live in a country where it doesn't matter how much money you started with. You can show up in a Goodwill suit and get a job, and if you do the right things you can succeed. You can move forward. No one is keeping you from getting a job or providing for your family. No one. And I'm just so damn tired of people screaming "privilege" as if I can't possibly have an informed opinion about how the world works because -- why? Because I'm white. Nevermind that I was born into a family where at least 2/4 of my immediate family members have severe mental illness (as in, so bad they government pays them to stay out of the workforce). Nevermind that my father left when I was five and made absolutely zero what appeared to be absolutely zero effort to keep in touch with his children. Nevermind that I spent my entire childhood living in neighborhoods where I could count on anything not locked up getting stolen. Because I'm white, that cures everything.
Sorry charlie, I don't buy it. I've overcome a ton of shit that I did not bring upon myself and some more that I did (quitting college, bad relationship choices). I have been blessed more than anyone I know, and I don't think I have earned all my breaks but I don't think they all came because I'm white.
What I hate about the quote I linked to the most is how it gives people who are the most likely to throw up their hands a legitimate excuse to do so. Here this rich white dude is telling them, "Hey, you're not free. You can't help it."
We are free. Freedom is not a result of privilege. Soldiers bled, died, and suffered for our freedom; if you live in this country you are free.
So act like it.
1:09 pm - Thursday, Dec. 03, 2015
Recent entries:
In Which Foundmercy Ruminates on Being A Mother - Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016
Boring entry - Friday, Mar. 18, 2016
In which Foundmercy whines for a while then gives herself a pep talk - Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015
Too old for this, too young for that - Monday, Dec. 28, 2015
Miserable Idiot - Friday, Dec. 25, 2015
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