Notes from the Transition

 As a kid, I was blissfully unaware of the racial privilege that I enjoy as a white person in the US. I was very aware of class privilege -- mainly because I was considered to be on the lower end of it. I was a kid in the 80s, which was a time when Reaganomics had made it necessary for families to have two incomes to be able to survive in the 'new economy'. My family had just one income, as my dad was a teacher and my mom stayed home. My mom sewed clothes for her three kids, made us lunches with homegrown food from our garden and had us play games like hopskotch and jacks instead of getting an Atari, which was the video game craze of the time. All of these things, of course, led to mockery at school and shunning by peers. I was very aware of the moniker "white trash", and vowed to avoid having that name be applied to me. The problem was, we lived in an old farmhouse right next door to the Stubbens. The Stubbens were a large family with a filthy house and yard. They h...