I came across this article and decided to share my opinion of it. https://brightside.me/article/what-you-should-thin...

I am not a person who openly shares their political opinions, however I want to address the assumptions made in this cartoon. I do understand the bigger picture that the artist is trying to bring out, and I do understand the difference in lifestyles of the two groups presented. All I ask is that you read this article, if you do, without a view that I am a right-winged demon, read it understanding where I am coming from with real life experiences that counter the arguments presented. Let me start off by saying I am not here to offend anyone or to start a fight on Facebook, I am simply here to respond.

This cartoon shows the lives of a middle-class child named Richard, and a lower-class child named Paula.

In this cartoon there is a photo Richard sitting at the table with his parents and it is captioned “Richards parents will do anything for their baby…” The photo next to it shows Paula and reads “…And so will Paula’s. That’s why they’re working two jobs.” My issue is that the two middle-class parents are sitting with their son for dinner. I as someone who’s family is middle-class can say that my father goes to work and busts his a** to do anything for my sister and I. He works so much he comes home when I’m sleeping and leaves for work beforeI wake up. He misses holiday dinners and weekend parties. So yes, people who are lower-class may work two jobs but please do not think that every middle-class person gets to eat dinner with both their parents every night.

Now we get to a cartoon of these two children going to school. I went to public school from preschool until college. Now I go to a private university which cots around $42,000 per year. My family has received no government financial aid and I solely rely on my scholarships (which my grades earned me) to attend my university. That is not privilege. Putting my parents into debt because middle class families are rich according to the government is not privilege. Are their lower-class families that need financial aid more than I do? Yes. But college is unaffordable for my family too.

I completely lost it when I was presented with these two situations: Richard had his fathers help getting an internship while Paula took care of her father while he was sick. First of all, I got my first internship at sixteen years old with a film company. The year after I was offered and internship at the Broadway League and at Lincoln Center Theatre. My parents had absolutely no connection to me receiving those internships, neither did my economic class or my skin color. This cartoon is saying that because I am middle-class I do not work for my achievements. This segment is also saying that middle-class people’s parents do not get sick. My best friend’s father was terminally ill and she left college for a little while to take care of him, her family is middle-class. My father was also ill, and if he didn’t fight through it I would not be standing here today.

The next cartoon shows Richard studying because his parents pay for school and Paula working and studying at the same time. I will be the first to say that my parents are so incredibly amazing for paying for my education, but I work three jobs. I go to school full time and I work three jobs. So please do not say that lower-class college students are the only ones out there hustling because it isn’t true.

Looking back on everything that I have said my parents do a lot for me, probably more than I deserve. But I am not spoiled and I am certainly not privileged. My mom goes to work and to school, and if my dad could work around the clock to provide for us he would. I struggle in school and things don’t come to me because my family middle-class. What I am ultimately trying to say is not all middle-class families benefit simply from being middle-class within the standard of the social ideas of what is popularly agreed upon as “privilege".