NORTHWEST / CANADIAN / AUSTRALIAN “PRIVILEGE” We (Washingtonians) have the luxur

NORTHWEST / CANADIAN / AUSTRALIAN “PRIVILEGE”

We (Washingtonians) have the luxury of:

(a) we remain on the frontier. Frontiers demonstrate borderland ethics.

(b) never having had underclass relocation (we never had the ‘black’ problem, or the ‘catholic’ problem, or the ‘jewish’ problem and never had the ‘puerto rican’ problem, or the more recent ‘carribean problem’. And we don’t yet have the hindu/muslim problem. And we are not sure that the mexican problem is all that much of a problem.

(c) we had an initial scandinavian-dominant (protestant) population

(d) we had only two industries; Aviation and Technology and now Bio/Medical (although boston is still the center), and the dominance of the classes that arrived for those industries.

(e) the ‘hippie’ flight during the 60’s that sent the yuppies to seattle and the hippies to portland.

We are, like the nordics of europe, simply privileged by a lack of competitors on our territory.

I leave the self congratulation to Canadians and Austrialians, both of whom, like north-westerners, are beneficiaries of circumstance, who claim intentional high mindedness rather than simply inheriting the privilege of (a) whiteness and (b) remoteness)

As the princess said: “never confuse convenience with conviction, nor inheritance with achievement.”