My Childhood Inequality

Five weeks ago, I would not have classified my childhood as privileged by any means; however, my perspective on a privileged lifestyle has shifted drastically within the past couple of weeks. Growing up, my dad was never in the home: he has severe depression and bipolar disorder and was institutionalized for a majority of my childhood. Due to this complication, my parents divorced when I was twelve. When Dad was released, my siblings, Rhianna, Kenzy, Kaelen, and I would move back and forth every week to a different parent’s household. Dad was unable to maintain a job because he had could not get out of bed in the morning; he applied for disability and used that money to support us. When at home, there was always a meal on the table, a place …show more content…
Watching The Wire has opened my eyes to other people’s lifestyles and situations that seemed impossible to occur to me because I was unaware that it was a real issue. The decisions and instances that those whom live in poverty undergo during their childhood are unimaginable to me currently, and during my childhood; however, it is the job of the society to help those who are less fortunate—especially in circumstances where they are born into inequality. When comparing and contrasting my life from when I was thirteen and in seventh grade, to my life as a twenty-year-old college student, several aspects are starkly different, and others seem relatively unchanged. At thirteen, I still lived at home with Mom and would go to Dad’s house every other week. Now as a twenty-year-old, I spend the majority of my time living in Waverly to attend college. During the summer, I go home and live with Mom because Dad moved out west to Wyoming. While at home, I have always had a chore list to do and to take care of before Mom or Dad would come home from work—this has not changed. The major change with the chores would be the amount of responsibility I have now. In seventh grade, my main job was …show more content…
Due to being born into poverty, Wallace was already facing a disadvantage compared to me. The hindrances continued to pile up against him to beat poverty, and in the end, he was unsuccessful. He knew that his main goal was to survive, which meant joining the Barksdale drug business, which ultimately led to his death; my main goal in life was to attend and do well in school, and to have fun playing sports. Because of watching The Wire, it has opened up my eyes to the notion that is the job of human beings to be able to take care of other human beings. If someone ignores a sign of injustice to a group of people, he/she is taking the side of the oppressor and is indicating that he/she is above them with his/her social class and he/she is not required to help other humans who are being disadvantaged. Children who are born into poverty should not stay in poverty because they have no means to get out of it due to circumstances out of their control. It is our job as part of the human race to ensure that others are being taken care of and cared for—it is about time we begin practicing