I’d seen this a few days ago and read it, but something about it really just hit me, and I feel stupid that it’s taken me this long to really understand it.
I understand, intellectually, the following:
- Black people are always at risk of being stopped by the police for no reason, and often get killed.
- Women are constantly under threat of abuse, rape, physical violence, emotional violence, etc.
- Poor people are constantly criminalized for things that would be trivial for middle-income folks.
- Trans people are basically constantly under threat of physical violence, and can’t feel comfortable in society because we don’t create any space for them.
The list goes on and on. I understand all those things, and intellectually, I get it. Here’s the thing that flipped for me just now, and it made this all really resonate with me in an emotional way.
I am free.
They are not free.
I want to live in a world where we are, all of us, free.