tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13840843.post-1129891597188059432005-10-21T11:46:00.000+01:002005-10-21T11:46:00.000+01:00Right Haplo first, <BR/><BR/><I>The statement above seems to want to assign all blame for failure on "the man" perhaps literally, perhaps figuratively.</I><BR/><BR/>No I didn't want to imply that anybody's personal failure is due to "the man." It's not "the man" it's the entire system into which certain inequalities are written. Nor did I want to suggest that we don't have personal responsibility for our lives. <BR/><BR/>I was trying to explain, perhaps not very well, why the phrase "the personal is political" is important. Take me, for instance, I am very proud of my achievements, and I'm not going to let anything take that away from me. However, as a white, middle-class woman, I think it would be pretty criminal of me not to acknowledge that I've had huge advantages in my life over many other people in all sorts of areas. I was talking to a primary school teacher who worked in a very under privileged area once. She told me that when the children started at her school, many of them had never even seen a pencil, whereas many of the children of middle-class parents arrive at school already able to read. While some of the kids from the poor area will achieve, there is no point in pretending that everyone started off fair and equal. So, I don't think it's about devaluing anyone's individual achievement or alleviating all responsibility for failures, it's about accepting some social and economic realities, protesting and trying to rectify them.Winterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07417665775296548835noreply@blogger.com