Privilege

Growing up in a small,upper class, white town it was hard to see much difference in privilege. It wasn't until you drove out of the white, picket fenced, suburban neighborhood to the outside world that privilege was ever an issue. It is sad to admit by my town is about 99% white and the two black people in the town are the whitest black people you will ever meet. My peers all drove new cars at the age of 16 that their parents bought them, they lived in a huge house, and had every new form of technology ever created. So you can see why it was odd to ever conceive of something different. Of course we weren't naive to the fact that all people did not grow up this way. Some maybe were more aware than others, but still the fact was known that we were quit privileged. 

Sometime I take what I have been given for granted, forgetting how good I have it compared to others. I'm not trying to brag, my parents worked very hard to provide for our family and I very much appreciate all I have been given in life. But being at a school like JMU also makes it difficult to see a difference. You look around the campus and see a swarm of North Face jackets, UGGS, Polo, Sperry, etc. you get the point. All these items we are "told" to have to fit in. We are only enforcing the privilege aspect saying that if you do not own these items then you should not be on this campus. But what does that say about who we are? Have we been bread to see society as dollar signs, just needing the next best thing to fit in?

I try not to see the world as divided. Yes, clearly we are but we can change it. Why should someone be "less than me" if they are "unattractive" or another nationality. Is that really how we want to categorize ourselves? I feel like I'm back in high school with all the pettiness of who is more popular, who owns what etc. That is really what the privilege chart seems to point out about society. Who would be in the popular crowd and who wouldn't. I want to ask one thing, wasn't high school bad enough for four years, why bring it into our daily lives? Grow up already and see the world as a box of crayons, many colors and sizes, but we all boil down to the same thing.