Hi I'm privileged, and you might be, too

Priv-i-lege

1. a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.

It doesn't have anything to do with how much money you have. It doesn't have to do with how many struggles you have endured in your life. It isn't your fault, personally, that you have privilege, but it is your fault if you don't do something about it.

I was born in a lower middle-class, white home in middle USA in 1965. My father became disabled early in my remembered life. My mom was a nurse. We quickly moved from lower middle class to poor, but we never realized it. My parents raised us all to understand that riches were measured by relationships and that education was the only possession that could not be taken away from us. 

It seemed fun and daring when my sister and I climbed into the dumpster behind a floral shop to gather a bouquet for our mom for Mother's Day and it was a teary-eyed mama who accepted it, and reveled in the storytelling of our adventure. It didn't feel like poverty.

I didn't begin to understand any semblance of what poverty was like until I was an adult. Even then, I know I didn't have it as bad as others. Using my money to buy dog food and baby formula because these creatures who depended on me didn't deserve to not eat. Having friends invite us over for dinner every other day because they knew that was the only time we ate. I sometimes actually miss the feeling of a cold shower in the dark, when both electric and gas had been shut off. I will turn off the light in my bathroom and only turn on the cold - shaking myself back into remembrance of how good my life is. Experiencing my miscarriage all alone, with no phone, driving through a tornado warning to make a phone call to my mama, crying. Driving a car with a cracked head, water in the radiator that looked like frothy chocolate milk, no radio, and a passenger side door that wouldn't quite latch. But I had transportation. I had a mama. I had love. 

No matter how many struggles I have gone through in life, I never once walked down the street knowing that I might get arrested at any moment because of the color of my skin. I never once had to have a conversation with my sons about how to act when they are approached by a police officer, for fear they might get killed. I never once had to send my husband off to work, wondering if this could be the day he might speed a little too much, or have a broken taillight, get pulled over, and I might never see him again.

My white privilege is not something to feel defensive about, when people point it out to me. It is something to own and use for good.

I am privileged. 

With that privilege, which I have only because of chance, I have a responsibility to be a part of the change. I love my brothers and sisters in this world, all of them - white, black, brown, young, old, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Agnostic, Atheist, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, gay, agreeing with my opinions or disagreeing with my opinions - every single human being on Earth has a RIGHT to live their lives in peace, with the people they love.

I stand with those who do not share the luxury of privilege and dream of a day when all of my brothers and sisters are truly equal.