A question on privilege
As an Asian, most of my childhood revolved around me studying and trying to get good grades, and I was good at that. The whole school’s society, teacher, students and parents, branded me as a smart kid, the role model. That is, until I revolted at 13, when I realized that I’m missing lots of fun just to keep my grades up. Now, as a 13-years-old, I was afraid of others’ judgements, so I still spare several hours a week to study. After several months, I found that my grades were still holding up, I was still leading the class even with bare minimum efforts, so I figured that that’s it. That’s my spot.
Things started to go downhill around senior high school. Grades started to drop gradually and I was almost the worst of the class. Teachers started to question, why did my grade dropped, were there any difficulties, or perhaps trouble? None of them reached me out directly though, so I figured they did not care that much. But then, one of them started lecturing me on how I wasted my potential, that with my intelligence, I should’ve achieved more, that I wasted my intellectual privilege. That didn’t bother me back then as I was not really interested in what the school presented.
Now though, looking back on it, a question arise. How often does this happen? How often is it that we told other people to use their privilege to our benefits? Lots of times probably. Did they like being told? Probably not. Do we need to stop doing that? Maybe yes, but also no. I don’t know. Perhaps the answer is for another day. Feel free to drop your ideas below.
