How My Privilege Can’t Completely Understand But Can Still Know Something’s Wrong

While the majority of the Americans were hanging with their families, eating hot dogs off the grill and honoring the men and women that fought and lost their lives for us, a young black man fought and lost his life in the hands of police officers.

What an ironic day. We believe we are celebrating sweet freedom while many in the same country just don’t see it the same way.

I’m not a racist person. I don’t believe the color of someone’s skin entitles them to anything different than any other person and as a believer I don’t believe God has favorites either – He created us equal but now at 31-years-old I am starting to see that my skin color does prevent me from completely understanding.

I go about my daily life with the ultimate built in safety. I’m white, married, middle-upper class with a college education and a career. I live in an affluent area and drive a nice car. I can literally go about my day and never worry about anything other than the usual fear of a car accident or now getting Covid-19 but generally speaking someone with my socio-economic background will live a long life.

Why do I say all that? Not to brag but to show my privilege. My above profile is a life that a lot of people in this country only dream of and I forget that on a daily basis. Am I not thankful daily? On the contrary… I thank the Lord in the morning, at every meal and in the evening for this precious life He’s provided but being thankful still doesn’t cover me in remembering that certain people groups aren’t afforded the same life.

Do I believe anyone can rise above the challenges they are given in life? I definitely believe that.

But at the end of the day if I were to go cash in a forged check and the cops were called… The result for me at the end of the day will look extremely different – including if I resisted arrest.

My privilege can’t completely understand, it just can’t. However, deep in my heart I know something is wrong and has been wrong since I learned about racism in school. And yes, I had to learn about it in school because it just wasn’t something that was taught in our house. I was raised to treat everyone equal.

And I know what happened to George Floyd is wrong. I can’t begin to image what it’s like to be a cop and have to make last minute decisions based on your life and others but I’ve seen the video… That was no last minute decision based on fear for life. My privilege can’t understand but I know that what happened was completely wrong.

Are you struggling to wrap your head around the events this last week? Maybe feeling like you’ve not been an active participant in the racial issues going on in America? You’re not the only one.

Yours and my privilege can’t start to comprehend the hurt that has been in this country for hundreds of years but we can listen to our gut and know something is wrong and speak out that we know it is.

It might seem small but it’s a starting place and every change that happens in America starts with one person recognizing wrong and saying so.

xoxo

Jenn