in response...

this dark daughta post (bkground collage not quite work safe) inspired the following comment:

do you think that by "resources" bell really meant the more institutionalized things, e.g., banks/financial, real estate...the overreaching sorts of things that have generated wealth for whitefolk?

'cause we DON'T really have those resources...not in large numbers.

the clip was so short, it's difficult to know who clarified what, what kinds of questions were asked by the audience & so on...

that said, i definitely see your point.

i grew up what you could call "middle class". my parents moved back into the city when i was born so i would know both sides of things. dad was insistent: no private school.

i learned how to "code switch" so i wouldn't have to worry about getting a job and all that, but it didn't matter what neighborhood my friends came from.

there were no jack and jill pretensions. we lived according to our means & that was that.

i was also raised with a healthy distrust for whitefolks--even today they sort of need to prove themselves before i cut them much slack.

the composite of that is experience is that i know i'm not from anybody's "hood", and don't try to be. i was parented and loved (there were issues w/ peers, but that's another story). i don't know what it's like to be hungry or any of that, and i don't have the issues that come from it.

however, i have friends and loved ones who do. who were the first in their fams to go to college, as of 2000 or so. who had teenage mothers. i understand the composite effects of these things and history on my ppl.

i'm glad my parents walked the line the way they did. if i'm to be a parent, i hope i can do the same for my kids.

you can be fortunate and still not distance yourself from your people because they, for whatever reason, are not. @ the same time, there will always be those who don't respect/listen to you because you're not from their block/corner/whatever. and that's cool too.

like you said, the complexities of it all are a BITCH.