Michael C.

Rosa
Professor Carlin Mackie
English 101
26 February 2012

Intersectional Privileges: A Matter of Perception

By Michael C. Rosa

My name is Michael and I have found the benefits of letting people believe what they will.
Peoples ignorance with small cultural and racial differences and even some prejudices have
become useful to me throughout my life. In some peoples eyes this acceptance that I have
developed may seem wrong and maybe even a hindrance to humanities global acceptance of social
and racial differences. This is probably true but I dont care. I leave the caring to the saints. I also
believe that not only peoples prejudices and ignorance but also peoples need to be anti-prejudices,
sexist, and their futile efforts to be politically correct have left them blind to events unfolding right
before them and especially within their own minds. Perception is something that most people dont
really think about but has a major impact on how we all behave and interact with the people around
us.
To show you what I mean I would like to start with a short experiment on perception: I was
born in 1980 to a mother born and raised in her native country and a father born here in the states,
Holyoke, Ma, to be exact. The cultural differences between an American born citizen and one born
and raised in their native land can be immense. In the case of my parents the differences are black
and white (the colors not the races). My father fits a certain negative stigma to a tee. Drug addict,
criminal, thief period! Now With the knowledge of where he was born/raised and the social stigma
I just described, can you make a conclusion about his ethnicity? But most importantly did you? In
the case of my mother I will use another, this time a not so negative belief in American society, is

more like on old Mexican women. If you think about the phrase old Mexican women a picture
will start to form in your mind, whether you want it there or not. When I think of an old Mexican
women I see a women that is hard working, a good mother, submissive and loyal to her husband,
and oh yeah, short. That would be my mother only she is not a Mexican women. Can you figure
out where she is from? Was your perception the same as mine? We must always remember that
the images that develop within our minds is a direct result, and in fact produced by the society we
live in. The following is a brief history of my environment and the society I grew up in.
Being a child of two opposing forces made it hard for me to truly understand who I was or
better yet who I should be. I knew my parents heritage but had no idea of how I should act or
behave. So I followed the lead of everything and everyone around me. Like my father I to was
born and raised in Holyoke, Ma. As a teenager and young adult I was what you might call a juvenile
delinquent. In and out of group homes and detention centers. Dropped out of school in the ninth
grade. Got my GED when I was in jail at 17. Institutionalized and young I gave no regard for the
people and things around. I lied cheated and stole for the addiction that controlled my life. The
knowledge of being a poor minority in the US meant that chance after chance would be extended
my way and they were. Looking back now I should have been locked up with the key thrown in
the nearest receptacle. But luckily for me I was not, a privilege I do not regret having.
Another privilege that has been detrimental in my life is one that was also granted to me
for the same reasons. A free ride through the education system with no regard for education was
and still is common practice in low income communities. I did not learn to read until I was in the
7th grade. When I learned to read it was only because of people who saw me as an individual in
need of help and not as a member of a certain social status or race. It was amazing to me that
people in this world where capable of such compassion and the gift that they gave me was one of

significant value. The fact that they treated me as one of their own is something I have never
forgotten. They were able to see how my experiences with society had a direct impact on my
perceptions and actions/behaviors. Now to conclude this experiment see if you can figure out
who I am and not what I am (in terms of race/ethnicity). Can You? In other to do this we must
always remember that everybody is different no matter the society they come from.
EVEYBODY has their own perception of intersectional privileges and instead of being
angry at everyone else for there privileges or views they should learn understanding. I may never
have the privileges or perception that come with being white or rich but that does not make me
angry but instead gives me great comfort to know that people will always protect their own. The
need to do this is deeply rooted into every human fiber. The future existence and progression of
any race, sex, creed and beliefs depends on this one thing, unity. We may fight against human
nature all we want, but at the end all we will be changing are laws made by man. A core belief
cannot be changed by conflict but instead it must be changed by adding one belief to another. An
individual person will always protect what they perceive to be their own. Even the worst of people
(mental illness excluded) will protect anybody they see as their own from any outside threat. The
hard part is not to get humanity to care, because that is already with in us all. The trick is to
convince individuals that the rest of humanity is their own.

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