A woman has taken to social media to reveal the tone-deaf things "people who grew up with money" have asked her at her school.
Jess, AKA @spottieottiejess on TikTok, took part in the viral trend where people are asked to reveal the most "insane" things rich people have said to them and she seemingly had many.
The ATL filmmaker opened up about what it was like during her freshman year at her university, stating that when she filled out her application for the establishment, her family's income was $18,000, which is significantly lower than the average household income in the country, as per the U.S Census Bureau.
"I got a full scholarship to a top university that accepts like 16 percent of students," she started. "Let me tell you some of the crazy s*** people have said to me."
Firstly, she was told that she had "so much work experience for a freshman" and that she’d been "working forever" but this seems to be one of the tamer comments in the grand scheme of things.
Jess then went on to reveal that she was once invited out for a "boujee" brunch with some of the girls at her school and the place that they were going to was totally out of her price range. She let them know that she couldn't afford to go, but it was their response that shocked her most.
"They literally looked me up and down and said, 'Girl you can totally afford it, you’re so skinny,'" she explained. "They thought I meant the calories, that I couldn’t afford the calories. They didn’t think I was talking about money."
It only gets worse from here.
Jess then recalled how one of her family members was seemingly "bitter" about her scholarship and branded her as "very privileged." She also added that this relative said that the "real oppressed people were the upper middle class."
Yikes.
The creative then went onto discuss the differences in perspective when it comes to living in "poverty" as she said that people don't tend to realize just how "traumatizing" it is.
Recalling a difficult time for her, Jess said that at one point she "gained 50 pounds her freshman year because of a binge eating disorder," since she wasn’t "used to having access to food in a dining hall."
"When you do have money, you don’t think about it. When you don’t have money, it literally affects every aspect of your life and will traumatise you forever," she added.
Later on in the five-minute video, she reflected on an exchange she had with her friend who was complaining to her about a job where she worked for her father, after doing an interview with his company.
"She got the job and complained every single week about how she had to work six hours, and it really pissed her off that her dad wasn’t giving her more time off," she continued. "And I was sitting there, like working 56 hours... at a gas station. I just couldn’t be friends with wealthy people."
"I was in survival mode for four years," she said after talking about a time that she was embarrassed to reveal the ordinary jobs her parents did after her peers talked about theirs. "I don’t remember any of my college education, which is very sad, because of poverty. And yet people are going to tell me that I’m the one that’s privileged because I didn’t have to pay anything for school."
"I grew up in extreme poverty," she added. "And I made it. So yeah, excuse me for wanting to have better for me and my kids. Cause I grew up in a house where there was no food."
The video ended with her acknowledging what she’s managed to learn from going to school with people who were in a better financial situation than her growing up.
Many related to Jess, taking to the comments to offer their opinions as well as their support.
The Peter G Foundation reported that poverty rates disproportionately affects US citizens based on their location, age, gender and their race.
Black households have an overall income that averages to almost half of white or Asian households while women still earn significantly less than men by approximately $10,000.
