I live in the city. I live in Minneapolis. I love it. I truly love it. I love that I walk in the Wells Fargo on Franklin and I feel that I could be in Somalia because it's almost all Somalis serving me. I love that someone put art on the Greenway by one of the signs on a little post so that you have to stop on your bike to see what it is. I love the parks and the lakes and the great throbbing mess of people who live here with so many hopes and dreams and so many stories of triumph or defeat (or both). I was born here and raised my first 9 years of life here. I feel that is rather significant. Even when I moved with my family out to the suburbs (or especially when) I had a sweet affection for the city of Minneapolis. I have only lived here for one year and a few months of my adult life and still it is close to Saint Paul (not even a mile away to cross the river). Yet, I guess I have the feeling that I have lived here much longer because I grew up most of my childhood here and for about 5 years I have been hanging out almost exclusively here.
I have also been substitute teaching in the Minneapolis School district since November of last year which has opened my eyes to the scope of Minneapolis and the disparity between minority and white students. I think this, and living extremely close to Lake Street, has made me see how much privilege I really have. I was part of an intentionally diverse community at my college called Antioch. We would meet once a week to talk about race, culture, ethnicity and issues surrounding these things. When I was there I did feel I learned some things and I could, in some ways, peel back the layers of my perspective to see other people's experiences and perspective. Yet, it was so different than me stepping into a truly diverse community. My college was far from diverse in reality and even though I have always loved talking to people of different backgrounds I feel I barely understood what minority students were saying about privilege. My parents have never been conservatives politically but I think I was somewhat trapped anyway by the affluence and privilege I had experienced my whole life. Now that I've worked in different Minneapolis public schools I see the same thing happening to most of the white kids in the mostly affluent Southwestern part of Minneapolis.
Honestly, my husband and I do not make a lot of money. I emphasize: we do not make a lot of money. In fact, there have been times we have been just scrapping by, and this being the recent past. The difference between my husband and I and maybe a Latino family in Phillips neighborhood (who could truthfully quite easily have the close to the same income) is that we have grown up with middle-class or even upper middle-class families. Our immediate families do well financially, all in all. They may have not inherited this from their parents (Chris' dad was on welfare because his mom was widowed while he was young), yet the fact remains that because of our parents Chris and I both have college degrees, not much debt, and mostly comfortable lives. Our families constantly support us by letting us know they are able to help us out financially if need be even though we are adults. Our families give gifts to us a lot, whether that is taking us out to eat or giving us hand-me-downs that are actually really nice. Not only this, but we have a great community of people from different churches and ministry who also may not have a lot of money but pool their resources often and they have been an amazing blessing to us. I guess I've just really come to the conclusion that I really do have privilege recently because of my experiences being an adult and living in Minneapolis. I just see it so much. I am very, very blessed. It's not all just "privilege" but I do think every blessing I have is a privilege, so to speak.
Anyway, I just wanted to write this because it's been something I've been thinking about even when Chris and I lived in Saint Paul. I just feel like I have so much even if it may seem to be not much. Of course, I sometimes get jealous and wanting things and I don't always feel this way, but I definitely do right now. I have really seen that the Minneapolis Public Schools have a disparity of learning between white and minority students and I feel like there are a million conversations to be had even around this observation. I just wanted to get that out there and if anyone feels like commenting in order to have a real conversation about these things I'd welcome it. Whoever you are I hope that you are grateful for all God gives you today - all of it is truly a privilege.
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