Thank you for sharing this.

I did live with a lot of guilt when I was younger. I wouldn't call it white guilt. I don't know if there is a name for it. It was guilt over living off of such a disproportionate share of the Earth's resources. The U.S. is a small percentage of the human population but consumes 80℅ of the Earth's resources, or something like that. It was also anger over being lied to about it. Omission is a form of lying. The theft, mass murder, genocide, ecocide, repeated betrayals, and displacement that Native Americans went through as a matter of official U.S. policy are things that I had been--and continue to be--barely told about.

I had done nothing to deserve such a ridiculously fortunate standard of living. Everybody else around me in the U.S. seemed to think that everything they had was completely due to their own merit. I knew that the latter was hogwash. I struggled for a long time with the former.

Then I reread the Parable of the Talents. The way that I read it, I had the responsibility to make the most of everything--including my circumstances--that I have been given. So I stopped worrying about why I have what I have and started focusing on how I can make the most of it.

All of that led me to develop a passionate interest in the issues and struggles of the people I believe have suffered the most: the indigenous people of the world; the victims everywhere of Western colonialism/imperialism; the people of the so-called "developing world"; etc.

I have, therefore, after putting the guilt and anger behind me, done whatever I can to contribute in whatever way I can to understanding the situation of the oppressed global majority, educate others about it, and contribute to improving their lives and correcting the injustices that they have suffered.

I have had few friends. I guess that comes with the territory. I guess it is the price of forgoing many pleasures, making sacrifices, and marching to the beat of a more altruistic drum in a culture that sees Ayn Randian selfishness as the highest virtue and celebrates maximizing self-interest through endless material consumption in an economy that depends on endless expansion/growth.

That is my story.

Thank you for sharing your story.