Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” Schooled Us On Privilege

Just yell it louder for the people in the back

Amanda Gorman is the 22-year old girl who walked up to the podium at the inauguration of 46th President Joe Biden, and delivered her poem “The Hill We Climb.” She is the National Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest in history. Her poem called for healing at a time the country needed to hear it most.

And this meant calling out privilege by the next generation — in front of a new President, a new Madame Vice President, and in front of Mike Pence.

What has been our norm the last four years has been privilege on steroids. The status quo is “oh so comfortable” for those with privilege. But it never benefits those who are already marginalized in society. It just allows for more time to keep things the same. This is across race, gender, dis/ability, income, and other factors.

Weeks after the Capitol Building was stormed by insurrections who opposed the results of the Presidential election Amanda Gorman stood on those same steps reciting her five-minute poem of unity. Surrounded by hundreds of National Guard and military personnel, Amanda was given a national platform for turning the page of hate to a new chapter in American history.

She reminded us that justice isn’t always what “just is.” What happens in our lives has become what we continue to accept, but that doesn’t mean that justice is present.

We’ve braved the belly of the beast, We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always just-ice.

So what does privilege look like? It’s how in 2021 we are still striving to see women have equal pay in the workforce. Privilege doesn’t allow many people of color the right to interrupted freedom to just be. It still restrains those with dis/abilities, and people living in poverty. But privilege isn’t just freedom. It’s power + power, and it’s not owned by everyone. Privilege didn’t allow Trayvon Martin to eat his Skittles while walking home that night. Privilege didn’t allow George Floyd to see his daughter one last time — alive. It wouldn’t allow Breonna Taylor the opportunity to sleep in her bed in her apartment.

But privilege did allow the Capitol rioters the freedom to walk away from a federal crime without an arrest on the spot. All the while Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestors are often used as target practice for tear gas and rubber bullets. Even when quiet or orderly, and when exercising their right to peaceful protests BLM supporters don’t always receive peaceful policing.

Social media postings like: “Imagine if they were Black” and “What if they were Black” compared the failure to arrest domestic terrorists during the Capitol riots to the Black Lives Matter protests several months prior. This double race standard has been the American way of life. W.E.B Duis referred to this as a "double consciousness." You are aware of the ways that your identity plays out in your opportunities but also your mistreatment as Black people in an oppressive society.

For Amanda Gorman, the daughter of a single Black mother, standing there to present her poem to the world defied privilege.

We the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.

Privilege affords the benefit of the doubt and due process under the law that was created for you. It allows you to remember a history that was never about being the descendant of slaves.

I am just one generation away from the Civil Rights movement. My grandmother didn’t have the opportunity to graduate high school in the South. She finished the earlier grades. Yet, never in a million years would I have thought that I would be the mother of a young Black girl who would have to fight some of the same barriers and inequalities that my grandmother faced. Seeing Madame Vice President Kamala Harris take her oath of office was inspirational, and it paralleled images of her on social media walking in Ruby Bridges' shadow.

But the history of people of color in this country has always been one of fighting for equality and justice and to be treated like human beings. Amanda Gorman’s poem addressed that.

We are striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

Amanda spoke to the need for America to strive for more than just being a nation, but to have an underbelly that is inclusive of all cultures and races. However, this inclusivity can not occur without facing racism and privilege head-on.

To reach this ideal she suggested that Americans can press toward unification.

Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.

Trump’s Era has ended but divisions are stronger than ever before, and so is privilege. Americans have to recover from the dangerous rhetoric that was the center of his campaign and presidency.

This sowing of division has produced strong roots in the ground, but America still has the potential to produce a new harvest.

Amanda Gorman is taking a step in the right direction.

But now, it’s time for no more excuses. No more fake news. No more claims of election fraud. It’s time, to tell the truth. Tell the truth about inequality. Tell the truth about discrimination. Tell the truth about privilege, and the societal ills that have harmed us all.

And in this effort toward achieving real equality…just make sure you yell it loud enough for the people in the back.