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In reply to the discussion: Aaargh. Wading into it: I'm grateful for my "white privilege". I wish everyone had it. [View all]3catwoman3
(24,169 posts)...or whatever else you might like to call it, my soul happened to take root in an fertilized egg created by my white, college educated parents, who were 26 and 27 when they married, and 29 and 30 when I was born. They weren't wealthy, but we never worried about putting food on the table, or having a place of our own to live in, and they were able to send me to college without me needing to take out any student loans.
I went on to become a pediatric nurse practitioner with a master's degree. it's a career I've enjoyed for nearly 40 years.
Had my soul ended up inhabiting the fertilized egg of a single teen mother from Chicago's Cabrini Green or NYC's Harlem neighborhoods, could I still have ended up as a nurse practitioner with a master's degree? Yes. Would it have been a hell of a lot harder? Damn right.
Call it white privilege or whatever else, my skin color has certainly made my life easier. I'd be a fool not to recognize this.
On a related note, my husband and I have never had to worry that someone might decide to shoot either of our sons just because of what they look like.