Priviliged v Underpriviliged…the process of a thought
Sitting here at the bar having dinner. Overhearing a conversation between two females who’s drinking age I silently question. The conversation is that of two young girls with apple watches, giggling about being told they have not yet completed their daily workouts as they sip margaritas bigger than themselves. The final conversation of their rendevous was that of the hatred one possessed for those who are privileged and can afford to go to graduate school. Clearly, she struggles with tuition options. As I listened I think about my own daughter who received what felt like an award winning amount of scholarships to cover the cost of her tuition. I thought to myself. She EARNED those. Not because she grew up poor but because she was self motivated and used the resources afforded to her to educate herself on how to obtain what she needed to follow her dream. A dream that at that time neither her father nor I could provide. She spent endless hours doing research, finding scholarships she qualified for and writing essay upon essay upon essay upon essay, sacrificing sleep to meet dead lines. I had absolutely nothing to do with those essays.
Back to the girls. I refrained from being “that mom” and barreling into their conversation. I wanted so badly to share my wisdom I obtained through experience. I did not. So here I am.
My thought process went something along the lines, whilst those of us, who were not born with a silver spoon in our mouths, understand the struggle to achieve and maintain certain status they hold. It can be frustrating and even infuriating when we hear them take their status for granted. I sat with it for a minute. I tried to put myself in the placed of the privileged born child and how they may not even realize how good they have it because they don’t know better. What is hard for them IS hard for them because they have not been ‘privileged’ to the life skills those of us who must fend for ourselves are afforded through experience.
My thoughts continued to roll and I thought back to a time when I lived in the ‘projects’ and my son’s friends opened my mind to the realization that the reality some of us actually live in seems like only a dream or fantasy to others. I took them to Walmart and they ran around in awe! It. Was. WALMART! A few of them hadn’t been out of their hometown their entire lives never mind to the Walmart. None of their parents even knew they were with me. They didn’t seem to ‘care’ so long as their children were being fed and taken care of.
On that thought, if the underprivileged didn’t know what reality was for others then might it be possible the privileged did not realize how fortunate they were?
Then I thought on about the controversy of how the rich feel targeted when it’s mentioned they should be taxed more. How the poor feel they are taxed too much etc.
I came up with a solution….perhaps the wealthy could be taxed LESS if they spent x amount of time offering community service deep in the areas where poverty exists exponentially. I’m not talking about the soup kitchens. I’m talking about the raw places where children don’t have shoes, their cabinets are filled mainly with cockroaches and they don’t really get to know their parents because they are away at their 2nd and 3rd jobs just to provide the roof over their head. The places where they feel unseen. Perhaps, those who are privileged might think twice before they complain about the bullshit, high class, first world problems.
Perhaps I am biased because I don’t come from money and have had to climb the ladder of success with blood, sweat and tears, sometimes fighting my own family to get here. I’m still climbing. My daughter still climbs. It’s ok to climb, it just SUCKS getting kicked down. But sometimes we step on ants unintentionally not knowing what they have experienced and how easy it is to kill their soul when we have our heads in the air.
