I'll not joke around here but I wasn't raised well, I was dragged through the mud kicking and screaming through my childhood. Yeah, my Dad earned a fair bit when my Mum lived with him, but we never seen any of it. That cash was reserved for pimping out his lifestyle back in the UK when we were still in Russia, barefoot. When Dad died I caught a pay-slip from 1985 stashed somewhere in his coffers and he had earned £30,000 for that year. Now I'm no finance guru but from what I understand that was quite a bit back then. Us, though? We didn't see any of it. Not that I mind of course, or feel like I've missed out, only that I'm painting a picture for you.

We were dirt poor

When Mum moved back to the UK after she had told my Dad to go and get fucked we were really poor. We moved in with Gran and Grandad and shared a bed in their two-bedroomed house. I was five so it wasn't that much of a problem. Gran and Grandad were factory workers and lived on an ex-council house estate with mostly other elderly people that had been through the wars. It wasn't long before we had our own house near my Grandparents and lived there for quite a long time. To say that I lived a life of privilege would be to admit that you know not much about my life.

There are times in my life I can remember getting a packet of pens for my Christmas because we barely had a pot to piss in. I grew up having to invent stories of my parent’s greatness because when other kids were getting all the new toys and fangled gizmos, I never had anything. There was a craze that was going around in the 80s; the coca cola yo-yo's. If anyone was at school at the same time then you'll understand how uncool you were if you didn't have one. I never had one and I can remember trying to borrow my friend’s yoyos all the time. Privilege? Nah!

I recognise my privilege

I understand my privilege though, don't get me wrong. I still had a roof over my head, food to eat and a mother that worked damned hard to bring all this to my table, which is a lot more than say the African that travels twenty miles to fetch water for his family, and then pray that the local donkey hasn't pissed in the well again. Amongst my peers I was terribly under privileged, but in a worldly sense I was one of the most privileged people on the planet. Free healthcare, food on tap, free education, house, love, all those things, not having a Dad and growing up and a sense of deep insecurity is miniscule in the grand scheme of things.

How do you explain privilege to a broke ass white guy, though? It's not black and white and never will be. How do I become understanding of the middle-class feminist that screams "smash the patriarchy" in my face when all she's known is love throughout her life and has always had everything she wanted? How do I explain to the black guy that manages a horde of people in his industry that because of his upbringing and background he has access to a lot more opportunities than me? And that because I'm white makes no difference. How do I explain to the college educated homosexual that perhaps he may be discriminated over his sexuality but he has access to knowledge, places and societies that I'll never be welcome in?

It's never straight forward

It's NEVER black and white, and although I'm using my class to make a point it shouldn't be about that either. I reject class archetypes in their fullest because people are placed in their class types through circumstance, and that is out with anyone’s control. I've always been of mind that we should be helping each other achieve more anyway, rather than cutting each other down and becoming separatist in our ways.

I recently came across something called intersectionality, and I like that idea better:

Intersectionality  

the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. "through an awareness of intersectionality, we can better acknowledge and ground the differences among us"

It's a really good word really, because it doesn't blanket statement an entire category, it takes into account the circumstances of the individual and not the umbrella they seek shelter under. I'd love for more intersectionality in this world! It'd make my life easier and yours. To understand that we are far more alike than divided.

We are stronger together

Regardless of all our neat little boxes we seem to have recently placed ourselves in I’ve always said we’re more similar than not. We may be black or brown, homosexual or transgender, male or female, rich or poor, left or right, but we are still human. We still want the same things out of life and try to achieve those in the best way that we can with what we have at our disposal. It’s time to start thinking about what we can achieve united rather than all this petty, I’m this and you’re that. But I digress, we’re probably hundreds, if not thousands of years away from that.

Perhaps Steemit may be a building block amongst many, a step in the right direction for a change? Who knows? Time will tell.

Thanks for listening :)