i recently got a shock when i visited the inner eastern suburbs of the city i live in... all white, english speaking, educated, middle class folk wearing neat boring clothing...
such an alien concept after living in the north for so many years... the north is a thriving, bubbling hustle bustle with flavors of india, africa, greece, italy, the middle east, asia, and the european dreadlocked crew... its the home of the politcal "lefties" and artists... hippies and weirdos... being white and blonde on this side of town makes me stand out like dogs balls.
over time i have lost my white educated accent and now speak with a strange mixture of all the above... even though i work in the top university our state boasts...
i am one of those white, educated, english speaking people (though with far more interesting dress sense!) but the point is, i'm so used to being just one of many flavors in the cultural soup that is the northern suburbs that visiting the east where i should have felt at home, made me feel like an alien completely out of her territory.
this is not to deny that there is white privilege in the north too. there is. and i am probably infuriatingly blind to some of the advantages i enjoy. but dating folk from the "white" side of town was an eye opener let me tell you! i was subtly excluded from all sorts of things for my northern suburbs ways. i ended up running back to back "home" to the north.
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such an alien concept after living in the north for so many years... the north is a thriving, bubbling hustle bustle with flavors of india, africa, greece, italy, the middle east, asia, and the european dreadlocked crew... its the home of the politcal "lefties" and artists... hippies and weirdos... being white and blonde on this side of town makes me stand out like dogs balls.
over time i have lost my white educated accent and now speak with a strange mixture of all the above... even though i work in the top university our state boasts...
i am one of those white, educated, english speaking people (though with far more interesting dress sense!) but the point is, i'm so used to being just one of many flavors in the cultural soup that is the northern suburbs that visiting the east where i should have felt at home, made me feel like an alien completely out of her territory.
this is not to deny that there is white privilege in the north too. there is. and i am probably infuriatingly blind to some of the advantages i enjoy. but dating folk from the "white" side of town was an eye opener let me tell you! i was subtly excluded from all sorts of things for my northern suburbs ways. i ended up running back to back "home" to the north.