Nearly 50 yrs into (and sooner than later out of) this life I am starting to gain some awareness of generational wealth and how some cultures have a leg up on others. I’m using the term culture here and not race very specifically. Culture may transcend race. It is true as such that poor southern white culture is closer to black culture than upper middle class culture is to that same standardized black culture. They are not mirrors. There are some things that race conveys that culture does not. The recent incidents with Serena Williams and Jhene Aiko are just the latest reminders that blackness (be it light or dark-skinned is not afforded the individuality that whiteness is within mainstream culture no matter how popular you are, no matter how much money you make, no matter how big the moment. If that were not the case these mistakes wouldn’t happen and if they did happen they’d achieve the level of infamy they rightfully deserve as opposed to a brief aside as they get.
That being said, there are instances in which culture transcends race. My partner is a first generation college student from a small town in the middle of nowhere. Generationally, she is one step removed from the outhouse culture circa The Glass Castle. In spite of that she is a college professor and she did that on her own, accruing the same student debt I did coming into it from being raised by a college educated mother. The cultural difference here is about family. My mom put me out on the street for the last time when I was 18. She gave me a bus ticket and sent me off to college with a ‘Good luck’ and a ‘I’m not filling out that FAFSA’
This is not how it went for my partner or, in the case of generational wealth, for her two boys. Both live at home. Both have anywhere from 10 to 30k stashed away from working. Neither pay more than a few hundred bucks each year for college either through scholarship or due to discounts because she is a professor. So, for them working is pure profit. The overhead they experience is that of vehicle upkeep. We buy the food, pay the bills, supply the games, etc. When they eventually leave the nest they will have a head start. My three boys won’t have that head start because I am not doing that for them. That is cultural. That is also a conversation for tomorrow, because my time is up.