prejudice

Growing up, I always generally accepted the fact that, as a white, upper-middle class female, I was definitely privileged. The question of money has ever deterred me from doing something I seriously wanted to do, such as going on vacations or even going to college. Furthermore, when it came down to choosing colleges, I could have chosen UT Austin, which is significantly less expensive for out of state students and is still a great school, but because I arbitrarily decided that I liked Santa Cruz better after a short visit, my parents didn’t hesitate for a second before agreeing to sign the check. When I was younger, I naively thought that racism, sexism, and classism weren’t really big issues in our society anymore, simply because I didn’t feel any major effects of them. However, when I was seventeen, I was driving home with two of my friends when I realized that there was a cop behind me with his lights flashing. I pulled over, and he got out of his car and proceeded to walk over and yell at me about how I had been flying down the 40 mph road at at least 60 mph (definitely not true). Furthermore, he stated that he’d had his lights on for over a mile (I had literally just turned onto the road and he hadn’t been behind me before I’d turned onto it.) He asked if I’d been drinking (I hadn’t) and made me get out of the car – I was on my way back from a fashion show, so I had heels on, and I stumbled a little bit on the uneven ground, to which he responded by pushing me up against the car, patting me down, then making me walk a straight line (which I have trouble doing sober or not). He asked who the car belonged to, and when I said it was mine, he kind of laughed and made a comment about “girls like you.” To make a longer story a little shorter, he made a few more condescending remarks before arresting me (in handcuffs and everything). I sat in the police station for about 20 minutes, where he continued to fire accusations at me and cut me off before I could answer. Sure enough though, as soon as my father showed up (he’s tall and affluent-looking – and better yet, he’s a lawyer) and began making a scene and demanding badge numbers, the cop literally curled up in a shell and began effusively apologizing. I suppose that’s the biggest example I can personally remember where because I was a white girl in designer clothes, driving a bmw, it pretty much sucked to be me at the moment.