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William Brown's avatar

I identify with your interpretation of Privilege and I concur. Success in life has eluded me to my personal satisfaction but is viewed by others as a life well lived

As Mr Jagger sang, "you cant ALWAYS get what you want"

But if you try sometimes...... you get what you need".

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WanderingSioux's avatar

"someone who's just read a book about systemic inequity" - Boy, did that strike home! One of my "failings" is probably that I frequently get overly analytical about life as it goes on around me! Sometimes, though, GK and Friends can broaden my interactive prospective, at least a little. A case in point is the time, a year or two ago, that The Writer's Almanac alerted me to a coming performance by Harry Belafonte. I went, expecting a lot of "Day-O, Day-O" and Caribbean music. Instead, Harry talked about his mother, while he was growing up poor in a Northern city. He introduced us, his largely white, middle-class audience, to the warmth, the neighborliness, and the mutual support provided by those around him. Listening to him, it occurred to me that he had grown up with a marvelous sense of social support and inclusion.

Could it be, despite all those sociological books and such, that those of us in the "Keep off the Grass" suburbs, are the ones suffering from "inequity"? How many of us seldom know the folks even two blocks away? We expect each family unit to be autonomous. To even consider that our neighbors might need assistance would seem an affront to "The American Dream." Could it be that, like natural ecology, each layer of social ecology has its advantages, as well as it's vulnerabilities? It seems to me that as a society, we put too much emphasis on the $ sign, and what having more wealth can provide. Basic needs need to be met, yes. But if, sometimes, the neighbor sees you're "in a pinch" just now, and gives needed help, you might return that caring attention in some way to them along the way. "True wealth" could be counted in part as the strands of interpersonal relationships that we've developed and can count upon when financial funds fail. What may seem like straightforward systemic inequity might overlook the richness of the adaptations folks make when financial resources seem too scarce. I saw a "joke" graph once in "The Journal of Irreproducible Results" - how to fix poverty. Just add money." Harry Bellefonte and his mother would say "Life's a lot more complex than that!"

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