On the essay “Invisible Privilege” by Paula Rothenberg, she talks about the friendship between her daughter Andrea a, who is white and her daughter’s friend Jewel, who is black. They were best friends for a brief time while there were at school. But they didn’t know their differences in their home lives. When Jewel went to Andrea’s house she was amazed with her house and more surprised when she knew that was more than one bathroom. Jewel realized how different they were when she first went to Andrea’s house.

Lower class is more likely to know about privilege than higher class. Because lower class cannot afford to have a big house with more than one-bathroom, or to have a Mercedes, or even go to expensive restaurant. They only do or have what they can afford. Unlike higher class they do whatever, and do not know how it is not to have what they want. Now Andrea was uncomfortable at Jewel’s house because she was not used to the way lower class live, like only one light bulb burning, only one bathroom, everybody speaking at the same time, and so on. She was terrified, and because of that difference between them, their friendship ended.

I think that people can overcome social difference. But some differences might be a little hard to overcome at first, but not impossible, just need to be focus and to remember that everybody is the same, no matter what color, race, or culture you are. Now if a person is greedy, who just care about money, what others have or don’t have, they will not overcome these social difference. In the case of Jewel and Andrea, they were too young to work out their differences.

By Deisiane