It’s Not a Privilege
“Dying young is hard to take”
Sylvester Stewart – Thank You Falettinme Be Mice
Elf Agin
It’s
not a privilege to be pulled over by the police and not worry if I might end up
in the hospital, in jail, or in the morgue.
It’s not a privilege if I can buy a
home in any neighborhood or that I don’t even know what redlining is.
It’s not a privilege to not have my home
foreclosed unjustly because of my ZIP Code.
It’s not a privilege if I don’t have
to change my name on my resume to make it sound “less ethnic.”
It’s not a privilege to not have to
change my hair for a job interview to make it “less threatening.”
It’s not a privilege to be hired for
or not hired for a job based on anything other than my qualifications.
It’s not a privilege that I don’t
have any ancestors who were enslaved, lynched, forced to come to this country,
or prevented from coming to this country.
It’s not a privilege to know that
none of my ancestors were placed on plantations, internment centers, or
concentration camps.
It’s not a privilege to live in
neighborhoods that are not riddled with liquor stores, crime, potholes, and
needles.
It’s not a privilege if I have equal
access to education, healthcare, or any other public resources.
It’s not a privilege to be able to
vote without harassment or literacy tests.
It’s not a privilege to know that an
inordinate amount of people with my skin color are not imprisoned at a higher
rate than others.
It’s not a privilege to go through
most of, if not all of, my life without being called an ethnic slur.
It’s not a privilege to know that my
skin color, ethnicity, or sexual identity is not a barrier to employment or to
anything else.
It’s not a privilege to wonder if
I’m going to make it to adulthood and realize that there’s a strong possibility
that I won’t.
It’s not a privilege to not worry
that I’m “not enough” because my parents were of different ancestries.
It’s not a privilege to not be less
than.
It’s not a privilege if I don’t have to
say that my life matters.
These are all basic, human rights,
not privileges. Anyone and everyone should have them, And the fact that they are labeled as privileges says that we
have to Get Started and Keep Going to make our country better.
