The other day ...

[ancianita]

16. Kind of you to say, thanks.

As far as my own privilege goes, I've been born into circumstances that, if I'd been black, would have held me back as poor for a lot longer than I already was, maybe for a lifetime; in that sense I've experienced advancements that I think the collective construct of white privilege gave me.

But I will tell everyone on DU, that, even more than my struggling parents and a man who believed in me helped me, the only people who really, truly helped me survive in my roughest hours -- when I was broke, sick or in jail -- were black individuals.

Those are long stories, but I do not exaggerate when I say that if I hadn't received their help at the very low points I was at, I would not be in the relatively healthy, comfortable circumstances I and my children are in today. I don’t know what to call the greatness of their help – karma, right place/right time, or love.

But I've always known that their help wasn’t because they were black. They had no agenda, nothing to prove to themselves, me or anyone else. They never asked for anything in return. The people who helped me did so because they were good, kindhearted people, and they could. To this day I feel privileged to have received their help, and to my dying day I will be grateful to have been in the same world with them.

I'll stop there for now. But I do have more to say on privilege.


FYI, I wasn't online that night and didn't see that thread, or I'd have rec'd it and supported Fourscore.