“Life is fair, it’s just equally unfair.”

Back in high school, my friend made this statement as we were growing up and trying to understand the “real world.” It was the kind of five-second sound bite with the cliché wordplay that you’d often see on a motivational poster.

But very much like the previously mentioned statement, the idea of society’s problem was oversimplified to us, and it was a testament to how much growth we still had ahead.

During my experience at MSU, I have gotten the opportunity to broaden my perspective and meet students from backgrounds different from my own. In many cases, I found students didn’t have the same opportunities I had, even though they were working just as hard. Some didn’t have AP courses at their high school, so they were spending extra time and money to pass the entry courses.

Others were first-generation college students, so there was lots of pressure for them to do well in an environment completely new to anyone within their family.

In the College of Engineering, there are clubs like the Society of Women Engineers and a resource center for minority students. It was from this that I began to grasp the true concept of “privilege.”

When I was young, I was taught privilege was something that was to be earned. Whether it was getting to spend more time around my friends or buying that new toy, I was under the impression that the privilege was something people worked for.

This oversight was largely due to my inability to recognize the true nature of privilege. After all, I was living in Troy — one of the safest and wealthiest cities in Michigan.

Despite naming ourselves “the city in a bubble,” my classmates and I were still incredibly ignorant to the concept of privilege because we never really experienced what it was like not to have enough to get by.

Once in college, it was clear that many students couldn’t work for the same privileges my community was automatically given, and that gap proved to be a tremendous burden.

Although I have changed my frame of mind to notice what has been there the whole time, there are people still out there that don’t want to acknowledge that privilege is a real thing.

In 2001 and 2002, the University of Chicago performed an experiment where they sent out thousands of completely identical resumes to a variety of employers, with the exception being the names — they study used either “Emily,” “Brendan,” “Lakisha,” or “Jamal.”

The latter two names got 50 percent less callbacks than the former two. It’s unfortunate, but it’s easy to see that privilege is more than just a minor factor. And yet, I continue to meet people with astounding privilege that believe that their opportunities are solely because they worked for it.

I understand that discussions of privilege are not the most uplifting in the world. It makes sense that dampening your friend group’s conversation isn’t on the top of your agenda. However, I think it’s important that we all take the time to better understand this disparity that leaves many of us complacent toward helping others.

If we can utilize our inherited opportunities to help those who were never given that chance, we can address this problem and grow together as a community.