Entry #361 – May 13, 2010: On privilege

I'm always debating with Africans about privilege.  They always make a blanket statement regarding Americans, privilege and opportunities.

Tonight at the Real African Women forum it happened again.

A woman, who does not know me, made a blanket statement about how many more opportunities I had than her, just 10 minutes into the discussion.

I got emotional.

I wish my response had been more cerebral though.

Then I would have done a better job letting this woman, who at a very young age had a child, whom her family cared for so she could get a paid education at university in the UK, know what opportunity in Gary, Indiana looks like.

I am the exception.  Not the norm when it comes to privilege and opportunities for people who look like me in this country and who come from where I come from.

Wow - how I wish there was someone to watch my God daughter so my little cousin could still go to college this Fall.  How I wish all my little cousins, who will be graduating from high school soon, had enough money available to them so they would not have to work full-time while attending university - in this country at a community college (let alone a university in another country).

At the end of the night I did come to one decision -- to stop debating and let them keep their fairy tale ideologies about what America is -- and isn't. It's not a battle I need to fight.