Personal Lens Activity

When I first think about my personal lens, I see first that it is made up of some very typical, privileged kind of things:  White, male, outwardly heteronormative, American, etc.  These are traits I try to be aware of both in my own view outward, and as others view me. Though certainly I don't always succeed in this goal.  One part of my lens that affects how I view myself, and one that I think will be challenged by the trip this summer, is that of class.

I have always viewed myself as solidly lower middle-class, or lower, especially growing up.  Even in times of my life where this was objectively not the case, I still had the inward view that I was a poor person who happened to have money for now.  Thrift is something that was instilled in me growing up, and no matter how well I'm doing I still feel that pressure to budget and save and cut coupons.

This is, of course, all... *ahem* garbage when compared to a migrant or refugee who has lost near everything, and I think being in and working in that space first hand will likely fundamentally change how I view my own class on a global scale.  The concept that most of us have in America of what qualifies as 'poor' is so relative a term as to make it almost meaningless on a global scale, as it encompasses everyone under around $20,000/year.  An amount so large it's about 25 times larger than what a third of the world's population lives on.  It's one thing to have needed donated food from a food bank, but it's crucial to look back and remember you drove there in a car.

This self-image seems like it should line up pretty well with Trump's image of America displayed in his speeches.  In fact, on the surface, I would probably be from roughly the kind of family he's pandering to.  My father was even in the logging business, which, of course, has taken hits from the dangerous, job killing, threats of renewable energy and environmentalism.  But, thankfully, it doesn't resonate with me much at all.  I can see how well off even my own 'low-income' family is and was, and we know we're not the forgotten ones.

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