I’m so tired of people trying to discredit my own opinions because I am white, because I wasn’t raised in a third-world country, because I have the ability to spend money on things I like (food, travel, etc.). To me, that is as stupid as telling someone their opinion doesn’t count because they are gay. I can’t change these things about me. And even if I could, I wouldn’t.
I recall a near breakup with my horrible ex-girlfriend. She was going to let me go because I didn’t walk her back to her dorm one night. I had no backbone then so I was crying like a fool, begging her to explain. She said, “I think we are just very different people. And I don’t agree with the way your parents raised you.”
In retrospect, I don’t think she actually disagreed. Rather, she was jealous of the way my parents raised me. Jealous of how despite the private school I attended for fourteen years, the gated and guarded neighborhood I lived in, the stable job my father had..my parents still were able to teach me the values of humility, frugality, honesty, knowledge, love, family, friendship, justice, and acceptance. There were so many times when my father yelled at me, “JOE, WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO PICK ON PEOPLE FOR THEIR BAD QUALITIES? Don’t speak again until you can talk about their good qualities.” It made me angry then but he was so fucking right.
There are so many cynics in this world today. So many that it almost makes me feel cynical again.
But no, don’t you dare try to tell me I am a bad person because of my skin color. Don’t tell me my opinion is invalid because I have a biased sense of “white privilege”. If that’s how you think, you are only boosting my confidence that I am a stronger, smarter, more compassionate human being than you.
