I drafted this on 3/9/15. Never finished / posted it for some reason. Posting it now to have a record. I might do a more complete follow-up post at some point because I have more thoughts about this topic.
I’ve recently gotten really into the show Looking on HBO GO. “Looking is an American comedy-drama television series about a group of gay friends living in San Francisco” (Wikipedia).
Tonight while watching the latest episode, I had an “ah-ha” moment. Two of the main characters (Kevin and Patrick) were at a dance (“prom”) slow dancing and I felt connected to the experience and hopeful in a way that I don’t normally feel watching straight couples. Then I realized this is something that a lot of non-privileged people face. I think this applies to a lot of situations…
- Impoverished students (thinking back to our Weinland Park challenge) that never see educated, successful people in their lives. Or, possibly worse, see educated and successful white people but think that level of success is unattainable because of their race or socioeconomic status.
- Women don’t see a lot of female CEO’s, so when they do it’s refreshing / inspiring.
- African / black Americans possibly never thought they could be president, so when Obama was elected they were very excited.