I wonder if that's why I've never been accosted or bothered in downtown even though, to hear the whackjobs at That Other Site, downtown Olympia is a dangerous place where every three steps you're aggressively hit up for change and every other loiterer is supposedly a sex predator. I'm not a big guy, my arms look like spaghetti, and I don't pack heat so it must be the way I carry myself.

(Or maybe the privilege I was born in keeps the danger away.)

Please give me a second grace. Please give me a second face. I've fallen far down, the first time around, now I just sit on the ground in your way.
Nick Drake

The fact that you are white does not make you a bad person. I just think that we need to come to grips with the fact that our skin color and gender does give us a very real and tangible head start in life, whether we can point to it in our own experience or not. Sometimes privilege manifests itself in imperceptible ways, and we should carry out our lives with the understanding that others do not have the same opportunities that we do, and for cosmetic reasons, not based on who we are or how we live our lives.

I believe you when you say you see others as equals, I feel the same way. I also know that if I apply for a job with most employers, I have a leg up against many others. It's not my fault things are that way, and I do everything I can to fight it, but it is true nonetheless.

Saying that you didn't "carry yourself as homeless" immediately creates a dichotomy between yourself and, "those other homeless", who for whatever reason, "look homeless". This is just as dangerous an attitude as someone who is unapologetically classist and actively oppresses other people, because it provides space for those ideas, and that behavior, to exist.

with people face to face idfferent.  I sell things face to face and my work attitude carries over when I talk to people in person.  Look 'em in the eyes, reasonabl tone of voice, etc.. etc..

Regardless of what you think of downtown Oly, I do not enjoy downtown Seattle, even with all the extra cops.  I used to work down there, and don't like it one bit, although it has gotten a bit better.  

I will give a so-called "bum" for lack of a better word the same opportunities in person I give to anyone else, maybe even be a little more tolerant, but I have been burned too.  Several times I have bought meals for people, only to find out they lived in a structured shelter or caregiver enviroment, get three a day if they bother going home, have a payee, etc...  I'm real careful about who I give money to know.  Even several times people asking for change "to make a call" I offer my cellphone and they keep getting demanding for change.  I turn and walk off and see a fistfull of quarters in the guy's hands.

And if you want to know, I have been the object of discrimination by so-called "minorities" who thought it would be funny to "show da' white boy a lesson" and these were not just wanna be punks, but store owners and shopkeepers.  Hatred and discriminiation swings both ways.  

 I still maintain that how you carry yourself and act goes a long way, regardless of skin color.  I suppose General Powell is underpriveleged?