I was born poor. My parents didn't own their own house until I was 10 years old, and it was no mansion. Thankfully, my whitish skin (I'm Croatian/Italian) allowed me to get good grades in school, and my skin color also gave me my work ethic when I got out of school.
To be much closer to work; tired of a 60 minute commute. My wife worked out by the airport, but got a job down in Tualatin, so Suburbs, Ho!
Nothing is certain in life. I was raised lower-middle class (remember when we had that?) to poor (1987-1990 was a set of three no-income years), didn't live in a house (only apartments) until I bought my first house last year. I've eaten "only a little moldy" church bread for dinner. I've lived in my grandpa's log cabin in the mountains because we had no home to go to (no showers up there, but lots of lizards to catch). I have a similar work ethic and good grades, but I also somehow was granted the gift of self-examination and awareness. Like I said, nothing's guaranteed in life; only about half of us get that last gift, apparently. Now, that poor part? Didn't last long. My dad got his job back in 1991, and we zoomed back into middle class status. His white guy connections in his white guy industry helped hand-wave his 3-year degree as the industry started requiring master's degrees. Kept getting promoted by his white guy bosses, even when his Vietnamese buddies kinda got stuck below management level. Got a nice house to rent from a kindly old white guy who just kinda preferred "stable, like-minded" tenants.
I have self-examination and awareness as well. Or is saying I'm only where I am in my life because of my skin color supposed to make me more aware? My wife is Brazilian, and gets so tan that many people think she's Hispanic. She's a Sr. Manager for her work for the Oahu team, and we're moving there for the summer starting July 1st. Did her dark skin, or being adopted, hold her back from succeeding in life?
Being raised poor has nothing to do with white privilege. Break it down for em' Louis: [video=youtube;TG4f9zR5yzY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY&feature=kp[/video]
