#5 Expectations

People assume my whiteness means I am rich. That I have wealth to give. That I can heal their hurts. "Help me come to Canada Liz," they say. "Help me get to school." "Help feed my children." They do not understand the lines within the colours. Although I am white and North American and possess much more privilege than they, I am also in a position of disadvantage. I am heavily in debt - banks willingly give me loans of huge proportions which I cannot pay back just based upon the word of my white parents. They trust I can pay it back. I eat at a food bank. Live near governments subsidized housing. Do not drive and have no health benefits. And yet I am trustworthy to pay back thousands of dollars?

But I am white so I must be able to do things on my own.
It is not assumed that I am lazy or living off the system.
I know that the privilege of whiteness exists when I walk down the street and have children run to greet me, hug me and walk with me just to say they are friends with the foreign white girl.

As a woman I am one of the millions who are impacted by poverty, who live under the low-income cutoff and who are not considered ‘productive’. My work is not valued as a member of society, nor was it when I was helping my mother to raise a family. In fact I am considered lazy and incompetent to many as I am not able to work and go to school full time. Marilyn Waring (1999) published a very significant article on the economic systems which are in place that exclude the value of women's work. Vandana Shiva (2004) also supports this stating that, "the devaluation of women's work, and of the work done in sustainable economies, is the natural outcome of a system constructed by a capitalist patriarchy." I am a productive member of society, but not according to the accepted defnition.

As a student I sometimes go to Walmart to shop, due to the low prices and the fact that it's the only shopping center within walking distance to my house. But there is a high cost to these low prices. I am perpetuating the cycle of undervaluing women’s work. Most of the product at Walmart is shipped from around the world made in factories by women younger than I, working in terrible conditions and for very little pay (Kerr, 2003).

I expect as a Canadian to be able to influence political decisions and to be considered as a member of the polity... I am usually not. I am appeased by those in power, who are privileged to make our laws. I am made to believe that I am making a difference in my environment through personal lifestyle choices, both for the environment and my own health. This does not make sense though when so much of what impacts us each day is controlled by larger structural influences.

Jensen (2009) makes the point that the majority of water usage is by industrial, corporate, agricultural and military uses, not by individuals. Why then does the government spend so much on trying to convince us to shower less? To take the subway or walk? Are they really concerned about us and our environment or are they trying to point the blame away from themselves, so they will not have to lower their usage?

In Canada the leaders who govern us are for the most part white and male. Almost all of Stephen Harper’s cabinet is white and male. I expect that in a country as diverse as Canada the structures that make up our governing system would reflect that diversity.