I was asked to surrender my White Privileges
Those who ask are mostly white suburban youngsters who have no idea what life is about. Some are their parents.
Let’s start. To ensure I understood the value of work, my Dad during school vacations, put me at work at 11 in farms, cleaning barns, milking cows, and helping harvesting hay and straw.
At 16, during school breaks, he put me to work in the company he worked for. I was paid 1/3 of the minimum wage. This increased to 1/2 when I turned 17 and the minimum wage when I turned 18.
As it’s easy to imagine, it was a terrific motivation to study hard and I did.
I finished HS at 16, went to a public college (no scholarship), and worked two jobs – one tutoring two real “white privileges” kids and being paid with silver coins (not a joke), the other one cleaning a pet store cages – darn puppy dogs, they shit a lot of stinky “cagada líquida.”
After my Masters’ I got a full scholarship (yup, white privileges) with the Army to study for a Ph.D. – I volunteered for Peace Keeping duties in Beirut, Lebanon where I got shot, still have a piece of an AK47 bullet in my right tibia. I had to defend myself to stay alive.
After my Ph.D., I went to Angola and the Congo where I worked for an American oil company. Angola was under civil war and I got shot at (again), got Cholera and Malaria, almost died. During my spare time, I helped NGOs in rebuilding housing.
In the Congo, in my spare time, I lead the construction of medical dispensaries and schools in remote areas. The clinics help considerably reducing stillborn death – 41% of the world stillborn deaths occur in African countries 🙁
Many kids bear my last name as their first name – I feel blessed.
As a footnote, I got Malaria twice a year every year lol
After Africa, I was sent to the Middle East to lead rebuilding a post terrorist attack on an oil communication center – 5 years with daily insults such as “Christians are drunk pigs.” (“almasihiuwn khanazir fi halat sakar”)
Back in the US, I work as an executive for a financial institution. My lovely wife and I mentor high school students (we stopped it though) and help homeless vets (we still do).
What else, I’m a private pilot and a skydiver, I earned my gold wings.
Look the verb I used: “I EARNED” not Daddy gave me, not the government gave me, not got it because I deserved it. I EARNED IT.
That’s the big problem with this generation, they deserve respect, they deserve everything because… and when you ask why? They can’t answer!
Not long ago, I had the pleasure to interview a young female for an internship. She is finishing a 4-year degree in creative writing. She had 2 requirements: (only)
- At least $50 an hour – her mom told her it should be a minimum.
- Accommodations due to her emotional state related to Floyd’s death.
Bottom line, she wanted $1.000 a week while working 20 hours only.
As I told her I passed, she went crying to her mom who called me! “You don’t understand, with everything going on, my daughter deserves it!”
We stopped mentoring HS students for the same reasons. We got tired having to support teachers because mom and dad are unpleased with a “C-” when “my child deserves better.” Teacher’s fault right?
Ya, your child deserved better parents but now it’s too late.
Everything I have, I earned it, even the bullet in my tibia and I’ll not surrender any of what they call my “white privileges.”
My big problem is that this generation of “I deserve” is not going to go away without a big bang.
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