Dear Editor:
Recently I read an account by a person who I assumed was a relatively young white male; He questioned why he should feel "white privilege" guilt. Then I read a response, apparently written by a relatively young black woman. Both of these pieces seemed sincere and were well worth reading.
My wife and I were raised in rural area, by decidedly blue-collar families. We received no special consideration nor, scholarships, etc. as we both earned university degrees from private universities.
We worked virtually the entire time we were in college and were nearly debt free when we graduated.
We did not have health insurance when our first child was born. We paid the doctor and hospital bills. (It never occurred to us that the government should force others to pay our bills, as it now does for nearly 50 percent of today's births.) We fed, clothed and provided a home for our children.
The young lady mentioned several instances where she was treated poorly because of her skin color. The events no doubt left some scars. What makes her experiences so different from similar experienced by other groups of people?
People of Jewish heritage stand out for the persecution they have experienced. Both the Irish and the Chinese were persecuted when they came to the United States as immigrants.
More recently immigrants from India, Pakistan, Iran, etc. could cite similar experiences of persecution.
Sunday's paper had an interesting review of a book that contains essays, some of which are on "fat shaming". No doubt there are many obese people in today's society who feel "persecuted" because of their obesity, or some other facet of their physical appearance.
Slavery often comes up during white privilege discussions, yet more whites have an ancestor who was a slave than blacks. (Robert Davis, a history professor at OSU, estimated that there were 1-1.25 million white, Christian slaves held just in North Africa from the 16th-18th centuries. Only 390,000 African slaves were transported directly to the U.S. Some estimate that another 60-70,000 came to the U.S after stopping at a Caribbean port.) Slavery is still common in many African nations.
Somebody explain to me why I am responsible for the plight of non-whites in the USA?
__________
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