re: When did you first become aware of your privilege?

When I got hired for the job I have now. I was applying for internships with a major oil company and the recruiter told me he was impressed with me and was going to put me up for the first of ten internship vacancies. After the interview I didn't hear anything for months but I continued to call the recruiter telling him I was ready to go to work. I eventually got an email saying I didn't get the job. A few days later I got a call saying I'd been selected and be in Houston in two weeks, post piss and health test. When I got there the recruiter told me that one of the ten selected candidates dropped out and he knew I wanted a job because I had left him multiple voice mails. When I walked in the room with the other nine interns 8 of them were black, female, or both. One other white male, and he was a 30 year company man's kid. 13 years later only two of us are left, one black man that does well.

So to answer your question, I have no privilege and neither do you.

I busted my arse for years... paying dues, making things happen, pushing myself and those working with me to better. Teaching and preaching to my children to get education so they could do better.
Finally, paid off.
Both kids have college degrees. I have been in management position for last 10 years.
But a price was paid. Nobody gave me shite. frick the welfare collecting lazy arse scum.

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Black people are the most racist Demographic in the country...

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I don't belong in a box, so you can go fly a kite.

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There is nothing wrong with wanting and even expecting that working hard for yourself will make good things happen and will help avoid tragedy and suffering.

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That’s not what I’m saying. Hard work pays off, but it isn’t everything. You aren’t just going to hard work yourself from poverty to upper middle class without some good fortune.

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The point is that this is not a problem of “privilege”. It’s an unavoidable element of our human condition.

And it certainly has very little to do with skin color in America in 2020.

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I think it’s more class privilege, but it just happens that there is a higher percentage of blacks in poverty.

I'm not privileged. I'm just two generations removed from dirt poor share croppers who worked and saved everything they could to buy a spot of land to build a small, three room house on. They ultimately were able to have a Jim Walter home built that was three small bedrooms and 1 bath. By that time, all but my dad had grown up and moved out. My dad hired into a plant in 1969 making $2.28 an hour. He came out of the fields making $3.00 a day. He worked 12 hour swings for 32 years before getting a high enough clock number to get a straight days job. He bought land, built a house (mostly himself) ran a business or two on the side, and provided for his two kids. He would come to our ball games and school shite looking like a zombie, but he was there. He'd then go grab an hour or two sleep and go back to the plant. He paid off everything he owned, stayed away from longterm debt, put some money back when he could, and raised us and took care of my mom.

He raised us right, got us through high school, but the rest was up to us. We had no financial help through college. He gave us a place to stay if we needed it, and occasional gas money. We worked full time jobs and went to college, because he said we would appreciate it more. He was right.

He was married to my mom for 40+ years before he passed. They stayed together through all sorts of shite. Mom worked only if she wanted to. We had love when we needed it, and discipline when we would need it. Pops said those were the two things in a family that didn't cost a dime.

You’re not privileged because you grew up in a two parent, one income home (that your parents owned)? Interesting

When my Dad paid me $2 an hour to paint the house alongside an all African American crew that he hired at a gas station. He fed us hotdogs and Kool Aid for lunch.

That’s when I knew I was NOT privileged. no work, no pay.

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It takes more than just a good idea and/or hard work to become super successful. It starts with where you were born and what family you were born into.

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That is not necessarily true. Adam carolla is an example that comes to mind.

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There is no argument against the notion that someone born into a 2 parent household will have a better probability of success than a 1 parent household and it only increases with things like a higher household income.

It is far more difficult to pull yourself out of a low income, 1 parent household “by your bootstraps.”

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I guess this is where we disagree on privilege vs consequences

Interesting some here define "privilege" as something that was considered normal 50 years ago. People are soft.

The strategy to escape poverty is simple. Most dont because they dont put in the effort.