I Am Not a Snob

I've gotten called one numerous times in my life and I must say it's all not exactly my fault. I am a product of my upbringing and environment. In other words I don't know any better so people need to lay off. Growing up my parents as well as other people in my family have influenced the way I experienced the world. For example, I was told that some neighborhoods, cities, places are gross, trashy, to be avoided while others are more desirable. A great story about this constant teaching would be driving places with my mother. We would sometimes have to cut through poorer cities or areas to get to where we wanted to go. She would spot a house for sale or a nice house in general and make a remark about how it's a shame it's in a horrible area. A more specific example of this would be this house she spotted once that was across the street from some apartments. She said she would hate to live nearby those scummy apartments. Trailer park jokes were a constant in my family and I was always told to avoid those places and those who live there or look as they do.

I was never living in a rundown house, I was never poor, I've never been on government assistance, I've never had to budget or worry about food ever. It's unfair to expect me to know and understand what someone growing up in the projects has to go through. It's unfair for me to get berated for not having extensive knowledge on lifestyles I know zero about. The only things I know are what I have been told or have seen on tv. That's like getting angry and hostile towards somebody from Zimbabwe for not understanding and knowing every aspect of American culture. Different lifestyles, different sets of knowledge.

There are also certain things I grew up being taught to look down on or to judge. If I was at a grocery store with my father and saw some scruffy looking parent with a herd of unruly children acting up paying with an EBT card of course he had to make a comment to me. There was a lady with several tattoos who fit the description I gave above at the store one time and my father had made a comment to me. "Huh can't be that poor to need food stamps if she can afford all those tattoos."

As I said it's unfair to put all the blame on me for how I am.