This. Knowing that I have privileges isn’t insulting. Insulting is the refusal of people to recognise that luck – not the rabbit’s foot kind, but the “right place, right time” – can influence anything.
Being born with white skin (and possibly money) in a world where people who look like you are the power brokers, is being in the right place, right time. It doesn’t negate the hard work I put in, but boosts it. I also got lucky in that while I have what is recognised as a learning disability, it’s not so severe that other aspects can’t compensate for it, and circumstances helped me on a lot, too: an extra year of kindergarten, because my mom volunteered in my older sister’s class. Split grades in 4/5 and 6/7 meant my concentration issues worked in my favour because I got to do grades 5 and 7 math classes twice. A mother who could afford the time to volunteer to help out, even if she couldn’t afford a babysitter. A mother who read to me early on and started me on a love of stories and as an early reader – influenced by her father who was a great storyteller. The simple timing that I was born into a world where a woman is allowed those things.
All of those are advantages handed to me, that I didn’t work for or control. But change any one of them and I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. Why is it so insulting to recognise that you got some advantages from being part of the in-group? Hell, your average high-school kid can tell you the advantages of that.
Funny thing is, the people ranting on and on about how “some people” need to find offense in anything, are the ones who get soooper offended, any time you imply that they’re lucky. Maybe it’s the Irish in me, but it baffles me how much some people think that good luck is a bad thing to have.
