It's Not a Privilege

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.