Reply to Serious question: Why are people afraid to admit privilege?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]How do people avoid poverty if the minimum wage (which is all you can expect to earn, at least at first, if you have only an HS diploma) will not rent you a two-bedroom in 99 percent of the nation's counties? How do you pay for a trade school if all you're earning is minimum wage? [/quote]

Read the PPs more closely.

You don't need a two-bedroom apartment all to yourself if you are single, and remember, [i]you don't have kids yet![/i].  You won't have kids for -years-.

So as a single 19 or 20 year old with a high school degree, earning minimum wage, [b]you rent a room [/b]in a group house if you're in an expensive city.  Maybe you even share that room that has 2 twin-size beds with another person?

If you're in, say, Dubuque IA, and group homes aren't a thing, you rent a basement from a SFH homeowner on the outskirts of town.  Maybe you rent that basement with a roommate.

Are you in my hometown in Kansas, working in an agribusiness processing plant?  Then you and 5 of your friends at the plant rent the whole damn house, and you follow the rules and don't trash the house and the owner lets you continue to rent for years as you attend night school at the county community college.

All of this is doable.  It's hard as hell to live in deprivation without that second bedroom and balcony, but a healthy, childless, single 19 year old working 40+ hours a week can do it.

[/quote]

You don't even have to do the "rent a room" thing. Renting a (shared) apartment is a norm for most people into their mid-late 20s at least! And this is doable for someone with a high school diploma who gets a job as say...a cashier at Target or Walmart. They pay $17-18 an hour for people who HAVE a diploma...(and about $14 to those who do not.) Costco pays well too. There are many jobs open to those with a HIGH SCHOOL diploma.

But again, we are talking about getting a HS diploma, then getting a job, THEN starting a family after you've had a couple of years to start earning increases and saving up. It's not easy, but it is possible.

Will you own a 3 bedroom home by the time you're 32? Probably not. 
But you likely will be able to afford a 2 bedroom apartment in your late 20s and count on being able to provide meals for your family. And that is well above the poverty level.[/quote]

[b]I hear the dog whistle. [/b] What this poster is saying is if all of "those people" stopped getting pregnant and dropping out of school to go on welfare, they would be better off--you know, no longer a drain on society.  Perhaps the poster would like to look at the rates of teen pregnancy in this country.  Might notice that the rates are dropping for black and Latina women, but remain high for young white women.  Same for who is using public assistance.

Growing up and living as a black person in this country, I have always been very aware of the benefits conferred by privilege to other groups.  I went to inner city schools where the bare minimum (books that still had my mother's name in them assigned as texts, no afterschool sports, activities, etc.)  Both my parents worked.  My dad worked two full time jobs so we could move to a better neighborhood.  I attended junior high school in a school that was 75% white.  I had never really seen that many white people outside of trips downtown or on the television.  A fancy school with nice things and lots of resources was a real shocker--I felt like I had won the lottery.  Except it came at a price.  Like being asked if I was in the wrong classroom when I attended advanced and honors classes.  Like having a teacher force me to repeat Algebra after 7th grade because he didn't believe someone like me could do the work, and having the school administrators and the county administrators back him fully, despite my grades, my assignments and my skills.  I could go on and on.  My dad always acknowledged the unfairness of it all and fought back as much as he could.  But he also was clear with me about what was happening and why.  I learned very quickly that as a black person, I had to work twice as hard to get half as much.  And sometimes I have had to settle for second best in order to get a foot in the door.  I got into an Ivy (on my own merit, thank you), but didn't have the money to make up the last 4K in tuition (and they wouldn't help).  The message was clear there, too: We'll let you in but we won't help you.  I had ample experience with the kinds of roadblocks the privileged will put in your way.  Prove it.  Prove yourself.  It is exhausting.  So I went to college elsewhere.  On a full scholarship.  Got excellent grades.  Went straight to graduate school and got a PhD.  Have a dream job and make plenty of money.  And still, I see the look of surprise when I walk into a room.

Not having to think about those things is privilege. [/quote]

Then your ears deceive you, buddy...for it's not a dog whistle argument. It's a fact that applies to every single person. Because regardless of your race or background, if you believe that every person has the ability to achieve the (pretty low-bar) goal of graduating high school, securing a job (ANY job that requires a high school diploma), and refrain from having children until after they get married, then you believe in the possibility and hope for every person getting out of poverty. Every person. It IS possible. Stop trying to keep "those people" or ANY people down by telling us we don't have the power to achieve that.[/quote]

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