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What I Learned from Dating a Privileged White Man
Satire to keep the tears at bay
My midwestern working-class roots run deep. I was in my thirties the first time I walked into a rich person’s house. Honestly, I always held a deep-seated bias against the rich. Growing up in a factory town, the separation of classes was blatant. Our friendship circles were ethnically diverse but separated by class. My interactions with the rich weren’t pleasant; as they looked down their noses at me, my middle finger rose to greet their gaze.
It wasn’t until my mid-forties that at long last I had the incredible honor of meeting and falling in love with a privileged white male. He proudly told me about how in his twenties he courageously walked away from luxury and his wealthy family and embraced a down to earth, edgy, working-class identity. He was confident that he now understood poverty, sexism, hard work, and resilience. He swore he knew what it was like to struggle, but his story fell apart when he accidentally let slip that he always had access to money, and someone would open their wallet for him if he needed anything.
Ultimately, the relationship was a disaster, but he did teach me a lot about his struggles as a privileged white man, and why the world should continue to revolve around them. So that you too can understand their plight, I offer you ten things he taught me.
