Ah, I so love having the idea that, because I am white, male and not gay, that I have such abounding privilege over those around me. I am sick of having this shoved down my throat every time I walk onto campus.
I spent my childhood in trailer parks, small rented houses and town homes, we even tended a ranch as hands so that we could use one of the houses for a few years. My father is ex military, he was a leader and teacher of men and women. When he came home one day to find my brother running in terror from a man he did not know, he quit. After getting out of the military, the world spat on him and told him his skills were worth nothing. He was without work, or bouncing between menial jobs until he was able to find some work with the family. Then he had to work in the mines, or in camp nearly every day simply to put food on the table. He was laid off, hired, re hired, pushed around from job to job, driving us all over western Canada in pursuit of work. Finally, after slaving away for twenty years, he is now able to get his own contracts and provide a modest life for my mother. He owns no home and his heart is now failing him from the years of physical abuse.
What keeps him going is the thought, the hope that one day MAYBE WHEN IS EIGHTY, (IF HE FUCKING MAKES IT), HE WILL BE ABLE TO PUT DOWN THE TOOLBOX FOR A FEW YEARS BEFORE HE DIES, AND HAVE A SMALL HOME BUILT ON THE HALF ACRE OF LAND THAT TOOK HIM TEN YEARS TO BUY.
I have gone hungry in shabby apartment for days on end because I couldn’t afford food over rent. I have eaten bread and gravy for breakfast and alphaghettis for dinner. I had to fight tooth and nail to get my loans simply so that I could escape the fate of my father and his before him. I have bled from my hands, and burned my skin with toxic chemicals, fallen off ladders, ripped tendons and sliced through nerves, I have been electrocuted, the taste of nail rust in my mouth as I breath a toxic smoke of calcene and drywall dust, resulting in permanent lung tissue damage, JUST TO KEEP MY HEAD ABOVE WATER.
I HAVE THREE MOLARS CURRENTLY IN NEED OF DENTAL WORK THAT I CANNOT, EVEN WITH MY STUDENT COVERAGE AFFORD!
I have been attacked, stabbed, beaten with a bat, had hockey sticks broken over my arm, followed, threatened, chased, BECAUSE I AM A WHITE MALE, AND STREET WALKERS SEE ME AS A MEAL TICKET, though I do not have a dollar to my name.
The pain and permanent scar tissue, faulty cracking joints, and fucked up lungs stand, as daily testament to the traumatic experiences of my day to day life, and I m only 23! All I have ever been is THANKFUL, THAT I HAVE A ROOF OVER MY GOD DAMN HEAD, AND SOMETIMES, FOOD IN MY STOMACH!
THE ONLY PRIVILEGE I HAVE IS THAT I LIVE IN THE MOST WONDERFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, CANADA, WHERE SOMEONE OF LOW CLASS LIKE ME CAN GET AN EDUCATION, AND BE SOMEBODY, REGARDLESD OF THEIR SKIN COLOUR, RELIGION, GENDER OR CREED! BUT YOU COCK-SUCKERS ARE TRYING TO TAKE MY PIECE OF MIND AWAY FROM ME.
Correlation does NOT equal causation. White does NOT equal privilege TELL ME HOW PRIVILEGED I AM!!!!!