My Skin in the Game

Posted March 11, 2014

In reality, when I am fighting with the Justice4All program, I am fighting for myself.

I am fighting for my right to not be complicit in policies that work in my favor but that threaten my peers of color. I am fighting against a system that has invisibly shaped much of my life – that has planted in me fear, ignorance, and disconnection; that has denied me the ability to tell the difference between a threat and a stereotype; that has structured my life in such a way that I possess a radically unfair share of resources and privilege while others are locked up and locked out. I have been taught my whole life that people of color, especially black men, are criminals. I am fed this information through the media, where I consume images of black men labeled as thugs; I learn this when, from the back of the car, I hear the lock click as my white family travels through a black neighborhood; and I am supposed to understand that because more black men are locked away, it means that more black men break the law. But from my own experience, I know this isn’t true. Instead, I know that there is a double standard that benefits white people by constantly giving them the benefit of the doubt, and punishes black people by constantly denying their innocence.… Continue reading »