Middle Class Reflection Essay

Being a white, middle class, female in America from a third party perspective seems to be one of the most luxurious lives in the world, and to a point it is- you don’t have to worry about whether or not dinner will be on the table, you tend to live in a low crime area, attend a good public school, go to college, live your own life and repeat with your own children. But the closer your analyze a life, the more struggles and privileges a person has in their life. Just because a person has a privilege doesn’t mean they too face a hardship, whether it be a personal dilemma or external oppression. Looking back on my life I had it all. My dad was active duty in the military, my mom is still a personal trainer and group fitness instructor, my younger …show more content…
Being white, middle class, and able bodied has given me many advantages in western society and has made my life easier than if I had been born to another race or class. For many people, this privilege is forgotten about and abused because of a lack of education. As Francis Kendall states “While people of color understand the necessity of being able to read the white system, those of us who are white are able to live out our lives knowing very little of the experiences of people of color. Understanding racism or whiteness is often an intellectual exercise for us, something we can work at for a period of time and then move on, rather than its being central to our survival. Further, we have the luxury of not having to have the tools to deal with racial situations without looking incompetent” (Kendall 4) . This perfectly encapsulates white privilege in the essence that even if a white person does take a person of color’s experiences and thoughts into play, they don’t have to dwell on it for their entire life for their life and freedoms are not at risk due to the pigment of their skin where as a person of color may fear for their life everyday just for being born the wrong