Today is such an interesting day. Many politicians, regular citizens, and everyone in between, will casually quotes that the great Reverand Martin Luther King Jr. said decades ago, without understanding the weight of his words.
They will share the “I have a dream” clipped quotes, and they will echo many of his powerful dreams for our nation, like when he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Many will echo Dr. King without a fundamental understanding of how radical he was.
This summer, my husband and I drove a moving truck literally across the country. Per my husband’s request, we listened to a big chunk of The Radical King by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Cornel West. It is a powerful collection of letters, sermons, and other things King wrote while he was alive.
Honestly, I am ashamed to say that I could not even finish the book. Not because we moved and were distracted by unpacking boxes, no. That is true, but it is a very convenient excuse.
No, if I’m being honest, I’ve conveniently *not* reminded my husband that we need to finish the book because it was so damning.
I call myself a humanitarian,
I call myself a Christian,
I call myself a lover of humans, a champion of children’s rights and education
And yet,
to truly stand up for what is right is hard.
This blog post today is not what you think. I will not name any single conflict going on in the world, though the ones I am aware of are heartbreaking. Those are the conversations I will continue to have offline. It is a personal choice, but yelling at each other over the internet is not an effective way to share a meaningful point, in my opinion.
I am choosing instead to ask myself – and you, the reader – what are you doing with your privilege?
Hear me out.
If you are reading this blog on a device, and you get to decide to read this instead of cleaning the kitchen or doing something else, there is a high chance that you have some level of privilege.
I will use myself as an example.
I am a Zimbabwean-born American. I am a black woman living in America. I am a millennial. I am a college grad, I possess a Master’s Degree, and for many years, I have held leadership positions in various organizations, impacting the lives of many.
You may read the above self-description and guess all of the ways that I may experience discrimination every day. Gender pay gaps. Racial bias in everything from ordering a latte to trying a new yoga class (Yes, it happened. No, I’m not going back to the class).
And yet, I choose today to focus on my privilege and what the point of privilege is, or rather, can be.
I have a significant amount of educational privilege.
I was raised by two parents who together have nine higher educational degrees. They instilled in me and my siblings a deep respect for education from a young age and sacrificed so much for us to have access to college.
I hold a high level of educational privilege.
It’s not a flex, it’s not a brag, it’s a fact.
I don’t have white privilege. I don’t have male privilege. I am neither.
But with the privilege I do have, I personally feel a sense of responsibility.
You see, the point of privilege is to extend that privilege to as many others as possible.
It’s like being Oprah and handing out cars like they’re cookies.
“To whom much is given, much will be required,” says the good book in Luke 12:48. Or as Spiderman once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”
I want to be the kind of person who takes FULL advantage of every ounce of privilege I have and pours it out to everyone around me.
Education still has the power to change people’s lives. Knowledge is power. I don’t know everything, but I do have a dream.
And it’s that every day, in any way possible, anything I can do or give or say that can elevate children, education, or the people who support children I want to do.
Love & Joy,
Vimbo
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