Let’s talk about privilege

Each of us has a unique perspective; we also each have an individual path, which nobody travels but us. It’s difficult to realize the privilege that so many of us have in our individual spheres. Privileges of skin color, of language, of gender, of social class, money, etc…

We just don’t notice how many advantages we have until some of them are threatened or removed

I once had a cleaning lady turn down the job when my friend and neighbor was looking for cleaning help. It became obvious that she didn’t want to clean for a black family. Blah. I didn’t want a racist cleaning lady, here, either!! But I didn’t give too much thought to it, because what can I do to change anyone’s mind? If they are racist, that’s how they are… I’ve wasted plenty of my precious energy in life trying to change other people’s minds. And it hasn’t worked, so I moved on…

But I have also seen my own share of discrimination from the other side, whether it was the shit that got dished at me in grad school when I had the audacity to have a child before graduating (in addition to being a woman in a physics grad program) or the language disadvantages afforded me in Austria and Belgium.

But the most annoying discrimination at this point in my life is the blatant xenophobia and sexism dished out at me in this country, where the assumption seems to be that the men take care of the cars and home repairs, renovation, construction… that is not the rule at our house, which I’m OK with, for the most part. But I’m not OK with the difficulty I have in getting good help with either of those because of the various sorts of discrimination I encounter from the people here. Not only am I a woman, I’m also a foreigner! Two strikes against me.

I guess I should be grateful for my light colored skin??

My Dutch teacher, who is a notable exemption to this xenophobia, kindly gave me a phone number for an electrician. I called that electrician, who indeed spoke English just fine. However, he did not ever actually keep his promise to have a look at the work that needs to be done here. He simply ghosted me, like all of the electricians I’ve contacted both before and after him. I believe he’s a good and competent electrician, as Dirk said he is, but his competence is not very useful if he cannot be bothered to show up here.

So I keep looking…

So, so small. Our individual perspective is so minute in the grand scheme of things…