Privilege exists...
4 years ago I got a job a week after getting out of the University. I got employed as a marketing associate at a tech company owned by a friend of mine and his group of friends. A lot of people assumed my parents had a hand in the job I had landed but it was simply a role gotten out of a conversation with the right people. It was privilege but not the kind of privilege people thought it was.
My parents never wanted me to take that job. They worked hard against me taking it and gave so many absurd reasons why it was a bad idea. Thanks to the help of my brothers, I win that fight.
I don't consider myself to be privileged but compared to most, I guess I am. I believe my privilege began with a change of Secondary school from a cheap one to a more expensive one. That gave me the privilege of meeting a certain kind of people who in some way lead me through a better path.
However, there are different grades of privilege and I consider mine to be at the bottom of the lot.
While I have the privilege of association, I lack the privilege of Old Money. I'm privileged to be friends with people with that privilege but there's still a huge gap between us that sometimes makes me feel like an imposter.
Some might say I have the privilege of feminity which allows me work less but find the perfect man that can handle the financial aspects of my life but I guess that's not the kind of privilege I desire so I repel that.
I was with a friend a few days ago and out of a whim, his mom made a transfer of a million naira to him. That's about $1,800. For absolutely no reason. He called her and she said she just felt like he needed money.
I felt the shivers of my lack of certain privileges at that moment. It wasn't jealousy but more of a realisation. My privilege resides with the knowledge of these people.
There are different kinds of privilege, however, my privilege requires hard work and not the freewill of just being born.
I'm grateful for mine, regardless of how inconsequential it might seem in the long run. I don't underestimate the value of association.
Thanks for reading
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