My Privelege ain't Like Yours!

It's ironic(?) to me that there's this assumption of privilege associated with my being in Grad school. I'm not privileged in the economic sense, I will be hopefully.

I am privileged because I have the social-support to have gotten me where I am. But this assumption of privilege that people talk about when I'm in classes "makes me wanna holla!": I am not like you! I actually have a sense of what's going on at the low part if the social strata, not because I read about it or because I was lectured on it, but because I've lived it! My education only has allowed me to add language, to put a a name on my experiences, within and with out my community. It burns me up to hear, "Oh, we just don't know because of our privilege"...oh, I know and will never forget because I live it.

This does not discount the cushion that I know I've had in other areas such as social and familial support or the resulting opportunities. But then I question (which if by a white person would be called 'white guilt') why it's a "privilege" for me to have had what one should have to be remotely successful: supportive family and friendships.

My qualm at hand is don't assume I'm like you because I am where you are! I respect and recognize that we all have struggle, but mine ain't like yours! This privilege you speak of is economic, and I have not had that. I've learned that poverty is subjective; I know we didn't have a lot of money but luckily I didn't feel it. My family was a little closer to the threshold than below the poverty-line, but we were NOT advantaged. Them foodstamps kept me full, Medicaid kept me healthy and those fee-waivers helped me complete my college applications.

I am privileged because of my hard work or/and the affirmative action that probably helped get me here (s/o to PHEAA and other state grant programs). So I am privileged because I learned and was assisted in utilizing a system that is under-utilized and misunderstood by my folk!