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

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[quote=Anonymous]The "nobody works harder than the janitorial staff" comment is interesting.

Here's what people fail to realize: the janitors will move up in American society precisely because of their hard work. Their kids will be fully bilingual, speak and write English perfectly, attend our suburban public schools, and thrive.

I know a woman who received asylum (not easy), started her own house cleaning business in moco, etc. Fast forward: she's a home owner and her 3 kids all have advanced degrees. I could rattle off tons of stories like this (I work in homelessness/poverty advocacy).

But here's what nobody says out loud: the immigrants will be fine. Statistics show the American Dream is still alive for them. They move up the ladder quickly, and their kids thrive. By contrast, poor Americans (primarily black and white) are stuck. It can't be the schools because the immigrants' kids are in the same schools. MoCo is a great microcosm for this social experiment: immigrants thrive, while inter generational poverty among AAs persists. Don't you think we should ask ourselves why? (Happy to provide hints: teen pregnancy, dropping out, raised by stressed out single mom/aunt/grandma, burdened by bad credit and criminal records so jobs and housing options are limited, etc. Dozens of studies indicate that delaying child birth and 2 income families lift people out of poverty. We can't legislate that. Bummer. Because it's the silver bullet to family economic stability and the ticket to a solid adulthood. Again: the immigrants and the low-performing American kids are in the exact same neighborhoods and schools; the difference is the immigrant families eventually move on.)

Lastly: the guy who drives me to the airport is an immigrant. He now owns a fleet of cabs. He lives in a $1.5 mil home in the burbs, and 2 of his handful of kids are on scholarships in DC grad schools. He started out in a very crappy neighborhood. He and his wife hustled before having kids. [/quote]

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