Becoming Aware of my Own Privilege

It was about three years ago during a volunteer event at a local elementary school in Los Angeles that, for the first time, I realized the incredible privilege that I had enjoyed in my life. I am an immigrant to this city and arrived at the age of 11 with my parents and brothers to start a new life in a country where one could be free to express their opinions. We did not speak a word of English, my parents had left every possession behind in our native Cuba and they did not know how to drive. My father was a former farmer who did not have any professional skills to find a new career in the USA and my mother had been a house wife all of her life. Now, here we were in Los Angeles starting from scratch. My father was then 53 years old and my mother was 40. My father got a job in a plastic factory earning minimum wage and my mother began to babysit neighborhood kids to help with income for the family. So you can say that we were poor, but all that I could remember that day three years ago was how rich we were.
The day I volunteered at that elementary school, I was placed in a classroom of second graders. I went in that morning feeling excited about what I could do to help the teacher, and thought just maybe I would get to play a bit with the students. I asked the teacher for guidance in what I could do and how I could make myself useful. She replied by telling me to go around the class to help the students with their assignments; not to solve the problems for them, but to help the students that were struggling a bit. I made my rounds and noticed a little boy that was falling asleep on his desk. I approached him and asked him if he was ok. His reply was that he had not slept because his mom and her boyfriend were fighting all night and, as happened almost every night, he could not sleep. He went on to tell me how he was also very hungry since he had not had dinner or breakfast. It was at that moment that I began to feel how fortunate I had been in my life. Driving back to the office a few hours later, I started to cry, but they were tears of gratitude. How fortunate and privileged I had been that while my parents did not have wealth and riches, they did give my brothers and I the best gift ever – their unconditional love and care. Not once did we feel that we were not the center of their universe. We knew that they would take care of us and protect us with all of their might. That is the reason I feel so privileged and fortunate.
The notion of me having this great fortune and what it has meant for me in my life has been on my mind ever since, especially since I possibly took it all for granted prior to that day three years ago. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that while there had been many other occasions when I did enjoy many privileges, there were also instances where I was made to feel uncomfortable by others with different privileges. The more I thought about it the more I realized that it is critical to recognize both my own privileges and my view of the world due to the influences of these privileges. To me, these can become blinders. I call them blinders because they can minimize the way you look at the rest of the world, influence your choices and your opinions of others and limit your judgment by thinking that others have experienced life as you have.
There is a quote that I love from Booker T. Washington: “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed. “ This quote reminds me that some have it easier in life just because of the color of their skin, their height, their appearance, their cultural identity, their sexual orientation, etc. I say “easier” because they have certain privileges that they are just born with. And my point is not to begrudge them for their privilege; I could not do that since I myself have certain privileges. However, my goal with the work I do in Diversity & Inclusion is to help us all to be more aware of our own blessings before passing judgment on others. I want us to recognize that maybe others have had to work a little harder, a little more, just because of who they are and how they fit into this world according to the privileges (or lack thereof) that they were given when they were born.
Being self-aware of the privileges that we have, and making decisions with the awareness that our blinders can get in the way, is how we grow. We should aim to make decisions on talent for our organizations in objective ways, in ways that recognize the talent that those with less privilege can bring. And while our immediate preference might be to choose those that have had similar privileges as us, let’s think twice or even three times before dismissing the potential that differences bring to any group or team. Rejoice in your privilege, and share it with those that were maybe not as lucky. There are definitely those out there, like that second grader I meet three years ago, that deserve to be noticed and to share in a little of my own good fortune. And while he is only a memory today, I will hold this memory with me. Whenever I meet someone deserving of an opportunity to excel, I recognize that maybe he or she had to overcome more obstacles that I did to get to where they are today.