Blog Topic 3 – Privilege

In Paula S. Rothenberg’s Article “Invisible Privilege”, she describes the friendship between her daughter, Andrea, and her daughters’ African American best friend, Jewel. While in a school environment, the girls don’t realize the differences in their day-to-day lives, but when they start seeing each other outside of school, they realize how different they truly are.
When the two finally have their first play date at Andrea’s house, Jewel is shocked when taking a tour of the house because Andrea’s family has two bathrooms. That could be classified as an invisible privilege to most middle class white Americans. We take for granted the fact that the houses that we can afford come with three-plus bedrooms and two, sometimes two and a half to even three bathrooms. Andrea has no idea why Jewel is so shocked because she has grown up with luxuries such as this, but Rothenberg understands because with her life experience she can see the class differences between the two girls. Privilege, I feel, is invisible to only the middle class because they see themselves as the norm and is visible to the lower and upper classes because they can see what they are missing out on or how much extra they have, respectively.
Andrea’s reaction to Jewel’s home at the time of Jewel’s birthday party, though, is much the opposite. She is terrified of the ‘second bathroom’ in the basement and cannot, in fact, even go to the bathroom without her mother being with her, while Jewel takes pride in it. She feels out of place from all of Jewels family members and is uncomfortable because her mother and herself are the only white people in attendance.
In this situation, I do believe people can overcome this type of social difference. In the instance of Jewel and Andrea, I think they were too young and too naïve to actually realize why they couldn’t essentially work things out, but their mothers understood. In a better circumstance, the parties involved would be able to get past the race/class barrier and grow to understand the other party’s side.

By Mellissa

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