Reading the documents attached to this assignment, I felt really distant from those people and their words I was reading. I could hear their pain but I can not feel that or relate. I will never understand that. Growing up white and middle class, regardless of my personal struggles, I was taught to a higher standard in school. My peers and I have had access to a higher education because our community has access to better resources. I have had access to technology since elementary school, I have had access to public libraries as well as paid memberships to private libraries. I grew up with WIFI and computers in my home. I have always been able to express myself in a social and writing setting. I have never had to be shamed or mocked for what I can not change about my physical apprearance. This has not affected my education, identity, or writing in a negative manner. I am privileged to have abundant resources available to me and safe spaces to use them. This has advanced my writing dramatically compared to peers even within my school whose parents just didn’t have the means for the technology or resources that others had. Peers that so desperately wanted to further their education out of highschool, but simply could not afford it. While at the same time, I am able to attend a university without the pressure of finding a job immediately. People in this country are oppressed, stereotyped, looked down upon, and hindered from success for the same factors that promote my success; the color of my skin and/or my social class. This in turn has shaped my identity. I will never not use the resources available to me to educate myself on the hardships others endure while using, regardless of my social or economic standing.
