Personal Narrative: My Relationship With Desiree White

My family does have financial problems, but we were never judged or discriminate. Even with that type of social class, people would help us. Our social class does shape my family, but it does not contribute on how we interact with other people. We still act like everybody else, we are a independent family. We don't rely on other's majority of the time, unless it is needed. We don't like people feeling pity for our family because of our social class. At my family social class, it does change our belief on how we observe our happiness. My family rather working class because we are happy where we are. Even if we here in the high class, that doesn't mean that we would be happy. My family enjoys working, especially my father. He has to work, but now he can't because of work injury. Even though that happen we are still happy in our social

I simultaneously grew up poor and privileged. Although that sounds like a paradox, it was a reality given my family structure. Following a divorce when I was just a toddler, my parents became financially independent except for a small (and apparently, inconsistently available) child support payment. After spending five years as a housewife and out of the workforce, my mom struggled. She often lived paycheck to paycheck, while my dad’s job as a banker allowed him to live comfortably. The disparities caused me to grow up in two socioeconomic backgrounds: my dad’s was BMW’s and cruise ships while my mom’s was ramen noodles and frozen dinners five nights a week. As a result, I experienced multiple socioeconomic perspectives by age fourteen, and

Thank you for sharing your experience. I can definitely relate to the feeling of wanting privileges that others have and having to work hard to earn those privileges. I have experienced this more in my adult life than in my childhood, and it was a rude awakening the day I graduated from college and my parents stopped helping me pay for things. I honestly think if they had required me to work harder for the things I had growing up I would have been more prepared for adulthood. I do believe that life can be easier for certain groups of people than it is for others, but I also believe that those who have to work hard for the privileges they have are the winners in the end. Like you quoted, privilege does not always mean good things. Good

If you looked at me, you wouldn’t always know. I take after my mother in many ways, freckles and soft, wavy auburn hair; stand me next to my father and you’d have no question. I am his spitting image, his genes read out across every inch of my face. It wasn't until I was around eight years old that I would know what being mixed meant here. How it would change my outlook, make me esurient for diversity, for color, for

When I drew the left side of my portrait I showed myself wearing extremely short, booty shorts and a PINK crop top because when most people see me, or at least when most girls see me, they see me as a whore, or a slut. I also drew me with a Michael Kors bag and Starbucks cup, because when other people see me who have never seen me before they think of me as a “common white girl” who’s rich, sobby, suck-up, dumb, and like to shop and drink starbucks. And in more detail I drew the winged eyeliner, and curly hair which goes with the white girl stereotype.

In the beginning my family would of been labeled as lower class on the socioeconomic status. My Microsystem includes my family and school. My mother mostly had raised me while my dad went to college. They lived in an apartment and had move out to lived with my mother's parents who lived in a poor town which is part of the exosystem, because I had no direct contact with that decision. Also, I was affected big time by that decision. I did not receive the best education till this day I'm amazed how fared I have came. I struggled a lot in school until got to high school I had improved somewhat. Not only that my father would have to work most of day which left my mother to do everything that just added stress on her sometimes.

Privilege comes to mind when I think about my future. I have been blessed with a multitude of “privileges” that my parent’s have not been able to experience. I’ve had a stable lifestyle, a home, a high school education, and I even got my driver’s license at age sixteen, like any other American teenager, and these things are often something overlooked for “privilege.” Another “privilege” that I will receive is having the opportunity to be a first-generation college student, and being the first in my family to ever go to college is honorable; however, it is not something that I want to take for granted either. Both of my parents quit school in order to either assist their families or to move to the U.S. to give their future children the chances that they have

My choir teacher decided to put on the musical, Hairspray, which discusses topics of race. The teacher scanned the class for the palest of skins to put as the Corny Collins Show cast and I was sure the teacher would pass right by me. It wasn’t until a girl raised her hand and said,” Well, Ananda is White too.” As true as that was, I was also Black and would be considered a person of color. It kind of startled me that everyone preserved me in this way. It kind of made me angry, no matter how cool headed I am, that someone could throw away everything that my ancestors went through for a minute part in a play. Being the extremely shy girl that I was in my younger years, I put on a smile and put my feelings on the back burner. I learned that no matter what anyone else had to say about me, I am who I

Growing up as a child I never really realized how privileged I actually was until my mother had passed. My mom carried a lot of responsibility in the role she partook as a mother like cooking, cleaning, paying bills, buying food, clothing, entertainment, and the list goes on and on. Now that she is no longer with us, someone had to step up to keep the home running. My dad was the one to do that; he managed to handle everything by himself, and he insisted that I learn how to do them too; so I took up on several abilities that a child at that age usually wouldn’t be doing; for example, paying bills, cooking, yard work,

I come from a place where success and advantage are limited. My mother came to the U.S from mexico when she was 10, and my father from Bolivia when he was 9. They both somehow ended up living in San Francisco as teenagers meeting each other through school. The thing is, my parents never made it to far in education. My mother had dropped out of highschool because of her pregnancy with my sister, and my father tried to make it as far as community college but ended up failing. Ever since their withdrawal from education, times have been rough. I never thought that they could come out of that. They ended up making their own auto-body shop in San Francisco. By that time we were simply living day by day.

My family has for the most part straddled the line between working and middle class. While most of my family members moved up in their careers as time went by, tragedies have struck (such as my grandfather’s early demise) that sent them tumbling down and the occasional triumph or stroke of luck has improved their financial situation and allowed them to bounce back. Of course money isn’t the only thing that has helped or hindered my family; their skin color has allowed them to maintain a place of privilege in society. I have only ever experienced the good life that my parents have been able to afford for themselves, but from working retail for over a decade I have been able to see how other people live and how hard it can be to make ends meet when that job is not just something you do while you’re in college.

My family has started and currently remains a part of the working class. Each generation has worked to gain a stable lifestyle. My maternal grandfather worked and learned the importance of saving his money at a young age with hopes to live comfortably in his later years. My mother has worked to provide me and herself, all the while pushing herself through her college. Additionally, starting in high school, I have always managed doing well in school and working part-time to provide for myself and to help out my family. Although our socioeconomic status as not changed from generation to generation, there is acknowledgement of progression in the area of education,

I was raised in a very middle class family. However, my younger years were spent in lesser conditions as my parents attempted to save money to move to a nicer

Social class is what labels us all now of days, I was raised in the lower socioeconomic class in Flint,Michigan where the murder rate was at a point the highest in the country.some could say I never had the same advantage that other students from higher socioeconomic class has I lived with my two little brothers mom and my step dad, it's not too many opportunities so when you do get one make the best out of it. Not to many make it out, as a kid it's either play sports or be in the streets, and nothing comes from the streets but being dead or in jail. With so many of my older other family members in the streets you can only imagine how rough it was making the right decisions. I was always put around the right people when I was younger, my mother made sure someday I would be something and leave the city and I think that's what drive me to strive for greatness. Being in the lower class

I was born to parents who were in their late 30’s, early 40’s and considered by the government standard as being middle class. My mother was rushed to the hospital on March 14th, 1995 in Brandon, Florida. This made me the youngest of their three children. My sister is ten years older than I am and my brother is seven years older. After I turned two years old my family packed up and moved to Mobile, Alabama, where I would eventually grow up to become who I am today. My father took a job as the head of the grounds crew at Spring Hill College. He was also serving in the Air Force Reverses as an on-base security officer. My mother took a job as manager for a company called Sodexo. We were not rich by any means but we were also not poor by any means. We always had food to eat and clothes to wear. My parents always made sure me and my siblings had the things we needed and wanted. During Christmas, we always had gifts from “Santa”. Thanksgiving we gathered around as a family and there was plenty of food. I feel that I have been very fortunate with my upbringing and with my family. I know that being white and being from a middle class family has benefited me greatly. I know there is not a time in my life that I can recall being discriminated against. That certainly is benefit in everyday life that I couldn’t imagine someone thinking negatively of me because of simply who I am. I hate that people have to go through discrimination just because of their race, ethnicity, or religion.