patrick.net

Both sides of my family arrived in the US post 1900, from oppressive conditions in Europe. One side literally starving in Germany in the aftermath of WWI, one side fleeing religious persecution from the Czar in Russia.

Nobody had money enough other than to make the trip. My Grandparents were children during these trips. No one from either side had finished school any higher than eight grade and that went for my grandparents once they were here. Everyone, all brothers, went through the depression and were in combat in WWII or Korea. One died on a naval ship in the Mediterranean, two had bad enough PTSD that they were functional cripples for the rest of their lives and never had a job beyond menial work nor had a relationship after that though one remained married in name.

My dad was the first to graduate college in his family...maybe even in his entire religious sect as they were somewhat Luddites. Both his sisters followed. After growing up in a tough neighborhood in a 2bd/1ba house(that's 6 people living in that 2bd/1ba house if you weren't counting. On my moms side things were better but still blue collar. Nobody got rich, though my grandparents were so frugal that they saved a surprising sum in their life. The first person graduated from that side of the family in the 70's. It wasn't until 2 years ago that the second one did.

But both me and my brother did. We grew upon a very ethnically diverse area in a suburb of Los Angeles. I'm finding it very hard to discern exactly our white privellege was or came from. I got to make more mistakes than most people, only because of my dad. None of it was anything to do with legal things...more bouncing around low end jobs during college. My brother didn't make those mistakes and actually completed college in a field he really didn't have a strong aptitude for. He just worked incredibly hard and that continued once he was in the work place. Again, not seeing how white privellege did anything.

I've worked for Asian, black, white, Latino, straight, gay, male, females bosses in my life. No one that I know of ever helped me due to my skin color. My first gov boss was black and was really hard on me. It wasn't due to skin color though...it was because I was a suburban born kid who was about to work in a tough area(like literally there were shootings while I was at some of my worksites). He needed me prepared and able to be aware of my surroundings and that wouldn't happen if he wasn't a hardass on me.

Again, what is this magical white privellege I have benefitted from?