,
9 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
There’s a confluence of factors that brought me to my current position, many of which reflect my privilege. I’m white, my parents are educated middle class white folks, I rarely had to forgo opportunities to advance in favor of survival /1
I was never perceived by potential employers, even in my earliest jobs as a hostess and waitress, as dishonest, nor did I engender resentment from them simply by existing. I was fortunate to have access to public schools that prepared me for state university success, and /2
to a community group (4-H) that provided access to scholarship opportunities that gave me the ability to earn multiple degrees in my 4 years of undergrad. I was also lucky to not be constrained by familial, cultural or religious expectations that would limit my accepted path. /3
Through all of this I never battled ancillary concerns like profiling or school to prison pipelines. I was once given a pass for clearly illegal underage drinking. My record was never tainted by it. I could have lost my scholarship but I didn’t. /4
All of this enabled my acceptance to law school. I was unafraid to move to a new state and community because I wasn’t worried about whether I’d be accepted there. (mixed results, fwiw). I worked for the DA for a few years. I never felt afraid of the officers I worked with. /4
And when I graduated, I got a job as a bartender without trouble while I studied for the bar exam. All of those things got me to where I am. I also worked my ass off. But I could have worked just as hard and had my life turn out a lot differently if I wasn’t a white girl. /5
If I wasn’t a woman I also likely wouldn’t have been raped in college. If I wasn’t a woman I wouldn’t have been questioned by every academic I’ve ever worked with despite my acumen. If I wasn’t a woman I wouldn’t have been relegated to an administrative role and told /6
to make sure I wore a dress every day to my first Wall Street job where I endured relentless daily harassment. If I wasn’t a woman I probably wouldn’t feel compelled to answer this goddamn bullshit question in hopes you’d finally think about what you’re saying /7
So yes, in the US, privilege operates in very specific ways, and I am cognizant of what I have earned and what I have not but benefitted from nonetheless. A better question is why so many men struggle with the same analysis. /end.
