Privilege

Today I speak on an injustice not heard of, simply for the fact that it is about a phrase many non-profits abuse to further their own aims. I speak on the word, “underprivileged”. I find this word has little meaning in the land of the free, other than that of the image it often conjures.

In order to get my point across, let me steal inspiration from the donor of my Y-chromosome. He made a great point when he dissected the word. “underprivileged” means that there are people without privilege in this nation. That means some things aren't there for the taking, and that there are people who are over-privileged. Well, privilege means that something is given to you, which is contrary to many things least of which is my personal experience.

My Economics teacher says “nothing is ever free”. This is most observable in everyday life; every movement costs something. Privilege is a word used to the point of cliché to describe the imbalance of such non-free-ness. The prefix of “Non-free” in this case is removed, and the word “Free” in “The Land of the Free” is misconstrued to mean “free food, free living, free loving”. It means something closer to “free to do what you want”. Sadly, this means the generations past can have damaging effects on the generation present.

Another thing my Economics teacher told me is that people are where they are because they want to be. I understand why people would find it hard to swallow this, since obviously people living in the projects would rather be living in their own homes. If you look into the past, though, my father could've ended up much worse. The reason he didn't is because of his parents, who instilled in him a work ethic that would rival an ox. They also instilled in him the values worthy to pass on to a child, which he did to me. I pray I can do the same.

I will not create a “straw man”, where I make the opposite to my father, let's say “Bob”, an extremely poor example of fatherhood. I will not do this, because I feel there are Bobs in this nation, and I don't wish to attack real people. (Also, the straw man fallacy is one in which the opposition to your point is portrayed incorrectly, being a very weak example of said opposition. I consider it on the level of clubbing baby seals: disgusting). So, if I'm not going to talk about the opposite of my father, why even include this paragraph? Well, I provoked your mind to subconsciously bring to mind your image of the opposite of my father. I rest my case.

Still not convinced? Underprivilege denotes a lack of privilege, which is considered to be “free”. Those “free” things aren't free; the people who have them strove and attained them, only after striving for a long time. Children are given privileges only after deserving them. Many things considered a privilege in many people's eyes, upon closer inspection, are not truly a “privilege”. Food is something someone worked to make.

Now to tie God into this mess of a post. Mortal existence as we know it was not God's privilege; it wasn't “given” to him. He MADE it. Granted, he is God, so it didn't take much effort, but existence didn't just come to God, he had to go and call for it. Same thing in our lives, except, whereas God can just will things into existence, we must will it, then act out that will to make it happen. Privilege without trial is hollow, for those who pay no cost find no glory in their privilege.

“and that's all I got to say about that!”