Killing Me Softly with This Privilege.

"When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

~Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream"; delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

And so we come, each day, to the Bank of Justice. In long lines we wait,while the Privileged enjoy the express lane, not because of the simplicity of their transaction, but the simplicity of our system that rewards those with advantage. We wait as transaction after transaction occurs, no matter how complicated, until it is our turn...

and the teller goes on break.

Justice deferred is justice denied.

We came to this bank on the dream of a reverend, believing that this institution was

not bankrupt because so many of our privileged brothers and sisters had cashed their checks and danced in their street with their new found prosperity...we could see it, so there was no way to deny it, and all we wanted was the same opportunity, the same prosperity, the same free toaster.

But that's the thing about having privilege, often you don't want to share it. Somehow you think it cheapens it if others, especially those "beneath" you get it; sharing it somehow means you're losing something, that it is pulling you down instead of bringing everyone up. And so instead of the institution being bankrupt, it is out to lunch, or on break or closing early, any workaround that allows for the same result with a different face.  The institution isn't bankrupt, just continually and consistently unavailable...

Justice deferred.

And like that, your privilege is secure.  No one will take it from you, they aren't allowed in the club.  You have your exclusive rights, your bottle service, but you still maintain everyone is equal, right?  You have not great advantage, just those bootstraps you pulled yourself up by that got you to this place, and if those people would only do the same, they too could enjoy the fruits their labors...but they're too lazy, or unfortunate, or in the wrong place...never mind that your bootstraps were attached to their back and that you pulled yourself up by pushing them down...

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain as weaves his narrative and orchestrates the system that builds each leverage, each advantage to separate from those "less than"...he finesses the real estate, maneuvers the wealth attainment and manipulates the law and legal system all to exclude those not considered worthy and advantage those thought to be, until the divide is so great that the impossible can happen.

And this, then, is where we've come to, this is what progress has gotten us, new ways to deny justice, to defer it, to override it, until a Black man, is killed because an officer was scared of Black men, and his irrational fear, his Negrophobia, if you will, wrapped itself around him like a straight jacket and he shot...

pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...pop

and he killed...

cop...cop...cop...cop...cop...cop...cop

and he was acquitted.  

His forged check was cashed while Philando's had a hold put on it.

Justice DENIED.

A system of privilege built to withstand any assertion, any attack any belief that it exists, like alien abductions, widely criticized and dismissed, yet no one has an answer for why the cows keep disappearing...

And that, therein, is where we have to start, acknowledging the existence of the problem, the stranglehold it has on our county, the interlocking tendrils that have weaved themselves into the fabric of our systems and society until they're almost indistinguishable from the true tapestry that is America...

But how you ask?

There is a thread loose...

A thread with names written on it, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Grey, Philando Castile, a testament, a memorial...

We have to grab that thread and pull it, pull it hard so that the fabrications and manipulations unravel to reveal the truth.  Truth that needs to be clear, apparent, have a light shone brightly on it: Privilege does exist and it is killing us.

Eliminating privilege means giving up the EXTRA rights, advantages and special perks afforded you because of that privilege. If one really believes that everyone deserves to be treated as an individual, equal and a human, the it is not only incumbent upon them to cast off the gilded ornaments of privilege, they should want to do so willingly and gladly. For the world to work right, we need to kill it, kill privilege.


It is time to lay it down and give it the slow, agonizing death it deserves and then to perform the last rites for the last vestiges.  

Only then can we be truly free. 

Only then can a Black man give up living in fear.

Amen