A few weeks ago, an article titled "The Privileged Liberal" was circulating through the Facebook feeds of many of my peers at Harvard. The article cynically portrayed this campus as a place full of yuppie, ignorant, wealth-obsessed, well-meaning (but stupidly blundering around) individuals trying to solve the world's problems with all the experience and aptitude of a toddler trying to solve calculus equations.

This article was shared and reshared, causing the conservative students to smirk, and the left-leaning ones to shudder. The author, Ian Mullane refers to the "Privileged Liberal" as having designer clothing, immeasurable wealth, and a pro-Bernie sticker on their expensive laptops. This article belittled, pointed fingers at, and tried to make a mockery of the liberal student population at Harvard, but I am here to respond.

Mullane criticizes liberal students at Harvard for not "checking their privilege" before they speak, and states "For the sons and daughters of those who’ve benefitted most from the free market, it’s easy for them to talk about the evils of money—the evils of capitalism—because they’ve never had to face the reality of being part of the working class" (Mullane, 2015). But what he fails to acknowledge, is the fact that these pro-Bernie, left-leaning, tree-hugging students care enough to even discuss, think about, and rally for a change in the system. A system which, he is right, does plague many members of the working class. Would it be better to pretend issues do not exist? What is the harm in someone of a higher class of wealth, wanting change for members of the working classes? What bothers me most about this article, is the underlying criticism that somehow, not being working class must equate to silence. Mother Theresa was very noble, renouncing all worldly riches in an effort to help the poor, but that doesn't make philanthropy equal to evil. People do not have to be poor in order to recognize that there is a huge disadvantage for poor people and that the system is rigged against them. People should not have to be poor in order to want to help create change.

Mullane writes that, "Poverty in America...has remained vastly persistent even after $20 trillion spent by the government since President Johnson enacted his War on Poverty in 1964" (Mullane, 2015), but he fails to mention the social welfare, safety-net programs put in place, which conservative candidates and members of Congress have voted to shut down. Social security is attacked frequently by conservatives, and its demise would wreck havoc on the lower class. Minimum wage has been proven insufficient to live on (Cooper, 2013), and yet conservative politicians fight against raising it. Every year school budgets are cut, affirmative action is called into question, welfare is attacked, healthcare policies are torn apart, all by conservative politicians. So for Mullane to criticize the "privileged liberal" students for their efforts in helping the poor, and the working class, seems to me to be a lost cause, because the real question I think we should be asking ourselves, is not "why are privileged liberal students so interested in trying to help the working class?" But, why not? And, why are the conservatives not doing the same?

There will be readers who critique me, roll their eyes and accuse me of being among the privileged class Mullane spoke of: an offended, ignorant, rich girl. But this is far from the truth. I am not working class, but I am not the 2%. My parents are middle school teachers, we live in a rental, we do not have a summer home, I do not have my own car, I do not wear Canada Goose it's too expensive, my sneakers are off-brand, and I will graduate with student debt. BUT, I grew up in a politically informed household. I was watching presidential debates with my parents by middle school, and one of my best friends is a right-leaning moderate with whom I argue, in good nature, frequently. Is this not what is important? To be informed, to be aware, and to have been exposed to enough information to make your own decision. What does it matter if privileged students are interested and motivated in political reform? Our generation has been called the least active in terms of voter turnout, interest in politics should be encouraged, not criticized.

I do not fit the mold of the privileged liberal that author Ian Mullane was referring to, but even if I did, that shouldn't matter. What should matter is how informed an argument is, and that passion behind that argument. Perhaps Mullane has some work to do within his own party, in an effort to match the activism and honest attempts to correct a broken system that the "privileged liberals" he has so wrongly called-out, are already doing.