My Privileges

Privileges

1. I am privileged at having my parents around who loves and supports me 100 percent. Being of Korean decent, they are at times, overly involved in aspects of my life. When I was younger it was more of a hassle, but now that I’m older I’ve learned to appreciate their concern and involvement in my life.
2. I am privileged to not have any physical or mental disability. I say this because my brother suffers from physical disability and I see the hardship and difficulties that he faces daily. The mere physical handicap gives him limitations that I take for granted.
3. I am privileged to be in a time period where discrimination and segregation is culturally and socially unacceptable. Although, we still see cases of racism within individuals or small groups, for the most part it is now illegal and intolerable by the majority of people.
4. Having citizenship in the U.S. I am privileged to have “equal opportunity” when it comes to benefits, school scholarships and grants, passport, visas, lower school costs (compared to international students), and much more. There are situations where I am not easily granted these “opportunities” and I may be questioned as to whether I “deserve” these benefits, but having an American citizenship allows me much more freedom then others from Korea.
5. Having been brought up in the States, I’ve been privileged to be able to attend grade schools at no cost. Public education is not free in all countries.
6. My parents worked hard as immigrants in this country which allowed me to get a good education in good schools. I never had to worry about my school not being safe or having to go through a metal detector every morning.
7. For the most part I was treated fairly within the school systems and classes. There was a case in my English course here at OU where I felt discriminated against, but generally it was never a problem in my schools.
8. I am privileged to be able to work, since so many people don’t have jobs at this time.
9. Not having “broken English” is a privilege, because I see the discrimination that occurs to people who don’t fluently speak English.
10. I feel that I am privileged to be in a supervisory position at work regardless of my nationality and age.
11. I am privileged to own my own vehicle and in any case I am not able to afford one, one can be appointed to me by my parents.
12. Living in a society in which we have easy access to many supermarkets at affordable costs is a privilege. Having the chance to eat all types of fruits all year long, for example, is a privilege. I visited Korea four years ago for the first time and was surprised to see the cost of strawberries at $15.00 a case. Fruits that are not in season are almost impossible to even find.
13. Being in America, which is known as the melting pot, gives us the opportunity to learn about many different cultures, if we wish.
14. Also, to be able to experience and enjoy many different ethnic foods is a privilege. You can drive down the streets of most cities and find different cultural restaurants.
15. It is a privilege to have access to knowledge and information through the internet, public libraries, public museums, and even television.
16. We are privileged to enjoy the entertainments that we have today, such as, xbox, playstations, nintendos, etc. We have so much to choose from.
17. I think that having the freedom to choose and practice you’re religion is a great privilege I have. In most countries it is not a matter of choice.
18. I’ve been privileged to grow up in a stable home and family.
19. I am privileged to help others at work, where I deal with people who have problems with addictions and mental issues.
20. Being Korean, I’ve faced many stereotypes. Some good like “you Asians are smart”, some bad “Asians are so cheap and never on time,” but whether good or bad, I’m glad to have experienced these stereotypes. Through my own incidents and my parent’s incidents of racial stereotypes and sometimes discrimination, I can be grateful of all the privileges that I have.