By Elijah Medford
“Today I will tell you for the first time, I am afraid to be a White Male within the USA. With all that is happening, I fear for my life, I fear to walk outside, and I fear that I will be killed in the streets or severely injured. I fear that in public, I will be harmed for being alive.
White privilege doesn't exist, at least for me. Male privilege doesn't exist, at least for me.
I did not choose to be white, and I did not choose to be attracted to the opposite sex and only that sex.
I live without a father at home, and with my disabled Mother and my dying Grandfather who everyday, I watch him slip away ever more, struggle to breath, and lose his mental state to dementia. Often at times, I have to care for him by myself, but I am more than happy to do it, even if irritation is a factor in my attitude.
I've been accepted to college, and a very nice one at that. I'm not able to get a grant or scholarship based on my race or gender like almost everyone who is not a white male. I've been denied many scholarships and grants because my family doesn't make enough. Federal aid is a tremendous help but I'll be in severe debt for a 18 year old. Around $120,000 to be safe to say.
I've never been treated better because I was white or a male. You never see signs at bars where it says "Men drink free" or "Men half off" anywhere. If I apply for a job, I'm typically shoved to the back of the line in applications strictly because I'm considered generic. The only thing that aids me there is my accomplishment of being an Eagle Scout, and that was hard work.
I live with a terminal disease called Type 1 Diabetes. This form is only by genetic mutations, not overeating and being overweight. I didn't ask for it and everyday is a struggle that frankly, I confide from others if possible. I consider it embarrassing that I have to take medicine or if someone notices that I have a pump on. Everyone looks at me weird and asks "Should you be eating/drinking that"? It's not fun, I'll tell you that. Everyday I deal with the fact that in the future, if I do not take care of myself, I will lose a part of my physical body. It could be an eye, limb, or internal organ. That's truly scary. Medicine is extremely expensive and nothing helps me pay for it. Obamacare did but as soon as the rates doubled or tripled, I paid more, just to a different system. It's either you have it or not. No in between. Insurance wouldn't even cover me because I had a pre existing condition and open heart surgery when I was very young.
These health issues that I couldn't have prevented effect me from not serving in the military as I wanted to follow my Dad in to not being able to do a majority of normal things that almost everyone else can do.
To cover the fact that I am white and that I might not "notice" the privilege I have, here's a few things:
- I've never owned slaves, and I physically cannot help that an ancestor of mine possibly did.- I'm viewed HEAVILY as generic and a number among systems of all kinds.- I deal with what I consider "racism" (Oxford Dictionary Definition) towards me because I can't help what skin I was born with.- What I consider "sexism" (Oxford Dictionary Definition) is used HEAVILY against me because I can't help what genitalia I was born with or my sexual orientation.- Most people would say that whites have better education, but I was near exactly bottom of my highschool class and I heavily relied on tutors all 4 years of highschool, and I expect it to continue on into college.- My family is low income and bottom middle class, just escaping high-low class. We work for what we have without aid.- I can't do much because society views me as almost dirt because I'm the way I am.
Hypocrisy, hate, and violence reins among the actual majority, and by that I mean that so much is Politically Correct, that all is afraid to offend others while excluding people who don't do anything to deserve hate.
If you call for love and tolerance while saying terrible things and doing bad things to others, you are by definition a BIGOT and a HYPOCRITE, and by moral standards, that's very very wrong.
Race, Gender, and Orientation are what I'm being defined and judged by. Things that I cannot help physically or mentally.
So why do it? Everything here in definition and logic says that I'm on the bottom or in a lot of way, oppressed because others of a different kind receive benefits for being born with a different color skin or they're from elsewhere, and majorly, those benefits come from white people who've become successful and own systems on their own or with help.
Example: Donald Trump was loaned $1,000,000 to start his business.
Back then and even now, do you even know how easy it is to blow that money!? Let alone make it grow in an industry that is so severely fixed, that 98% of those who enter it, come out in debt or just broke!? Trump is economically smart and influential.
I end with this:
I as a majority, am very very "unprivileged" (if that's even a word). I didn't do this to get sympathy but to let people and the world know that it's not literally what they think. It's opposite, even by just a little.
I fear for my life now that hate for one person is shed unto me when I did not do anything to deserve it, at least I don't think so. All of this is extremely embarrassing to share and I apologize to those who I mention if I brought that same feeling to them.
Stereotypes are more different than what the popular believe. All I ask is that you share this to let others know and just be kind to another. Thank you.”
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We hope to amplify the voices of those who would like to share their personal and emotional reaction to the 2016 Presidential election results. If you would like to share your story, please email it to joshuahyunholee@gmail.com or nadya.teresa@gmail.com to be be published on our series via Huffington Post. Feel free to send in an introductory sentence about yourself and image to share. We hope to hear from you.