Black Privilege....White Privilege? Male Privilege......Female Privilege? by Rebekah Walton

I have never seen this privilege  people are referring to. I had chocolate friends in college and no one was talking about this privilege that us palefaces get. I have never seen a job that had something against anyone either, unless they were prone to commit a crime. I was a minority at my job as a janitor at the Denver Performing Arts Center, I was the only paleface female.

I did not feel excluded or somehow unprivileged at all, I talked to the girls at the job and they were all pretty friendly to me. The guys did sometimes talk but, I usually wasn't doing a shift with them. So, I haven't seen privileges either way.

My last job was working at a theatre, there was no excluding of anyone or creating privileges for anyone else, no matter what shade of color they might be or what gender. Now, over 30 years ago (actually way more than that) sure my mom was excluded because she was female in high school from a drafting class. But, one that was a long time ago and that was just her school. Not every school even thirty or so years ago had that probably. My mom tended to get the bad teachers in school and or a principal (when she was teaching) who did not think anymore than one computer was needed in a computer class, even though they had 30 students or so.

I have never seen male privilege  really in action at all. I would like to know where it is in action, because my mom majored in Physics (the only girl  in a group full of guys, that's where she met Dad). and in college she did not experience any of this supposed favoritism towards men. For those of you that think boyscouts is male privilege, it's not, it's just a place where boys can have some guy bonding time and actually make friends without having girls around to distract them. Both of my brothers were in Boyscouts and they had really great friends. If you feel excluded as a girl, join Venturing, I did. We even get to go to Philmont as a Venturer and you get a card that says you belong to the Boyscouts of America. So, you can technically say, I am a Boyscout. Venturing has some pretty high ranks and their top rank is harder than Eagle. (Not that I made any ranks while I was in it, I have heard this from other boyscouts, our venturing crew did not really worry about ranks we just had fun, hiking and climbing).

I would argue that if there is any prejudices going around, it's a prejudice against homeschoolers. I am homeschooled and I found a few obstacles in my way. When I thought I wanted to join the Marines (bad decision (for me) I know, thank goodness I have a smart Dad), I had to take a math test. I was told because I was homeschooled I had to get a higher grade than public school kids. (I got a higher grade and passed that test by the way).

Also, I have met people who hate homeschooling, I had a college teacher like this, we did not get along. Most tests that homeschoolers have to take end of the year more extensive than public school kids. They require more from us because we were homeschooled, why?

Now, a lot of people are going to argue that some colleges offer special scholarships for homeschoolers, and they are right some colleges do. Others may argue we tend to be smarter so of course we would be tested correctly according to our average grade. And of course, this is true but this is also an insult to public schooled kids.

But, saying that is like saying all public schooled kids are stupid. Now, maybe they are, but, that is no reason to embarrass the public school kids and require everyone to get a higher grade than them. (Just joking guys, I have public school friends). This is prejudice against homeschoolers for learning more in school.

[Now, the facts truly show that homeschoolers in general just tend to test better than the public schooled ones. Why is this? Well, we are made to learn the info while others (the kids who were not left behind because of the No Child Left Behind Act) barely learned how to read and were pushed through highschool. So, what am I saying? Well, some kids need more time than others and we should not just push them through at a unruly speed so that spend 12 years learning nothing.]

But, all that to say a point I have never seen privileges either way, Male, Female, or any shade of color privilege.

Links to resources:
http://www.nheri.org/research/research-facts-on-homeschooling.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/30/home-schooling-outstanding-results-national-tests/