There are 5 million poor white kids in this country. Let's explain white privilege to their parents.

[Gormy Cuss]

22. As a former poor white kid, let me give it a shot.

First off, do you know what privilege means? In young person terms, it means that a person is given respect and allowed to make choices without being told no all the time.

For example, if a rich person wants to eat steak for dinner, they just buy one. They may even go to a restaurant and let someone else cook it for them and serve it to them even though it costs a bazillion times more that way. Why? Because having lots of money gives them that privilege.

You know that in your family it works differently. You can want a steak every day of the week but you'll never get one. Why? Because the lack of money means that you don't have that privilege.

Now being poor stinks on so many levels it may feel like you don't have any privilege at all. It sure feels like no one gives a hoot about you, that no one is willing to give you a chance. So when you see some fancy dressed white person say that you have "white privilege" you may think it's a bunch of hooey. WHAT privilege, you say. Your life sucks every day in a hundred ways and it's no better for your white neighbors. More to the point, you don't think it will ever get better either. Too many strikes against you.

Now if when you grow up you graduate from high school, you'll be out looking for a job. You'll worry about making a good impression. You'll worry about whether your school record was good enough. You'll worry about whether they'll hire you even though your address betrays the fact that you live in THAT part of town. You'll worry about whether is too far away to walk, bike or drive in your old car.
What you won't worry about is whether they'll skip hiring you because you're Latino, or African-American, or Asian or Indian. That's white privilege.



And BTW, I've used similar examples to explain white privilege to friends and family from the old neighborhood. Most of them get it on the first try.