Poverty

Inequities of society

Your struggle isn’t my struggle and although I sympathize with you, I can’t lie and say I know how you feel. No matter how much I want to help, No matter how much I try to help, Our circumstance differs And I can never know your plight.

Yes I know I’m a minority But I was also born with privilege, Into modest wealth and opportunity.

But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t care.

I may know segregation, I do know racism, Regardless, the topic of conversation Is a situation much more damming.

I’m talking about poverty And the inequality of opportunity, It is the agent of conquest, The quiet enforcer of segregation.

It’s existence perpetuates the evils of society And nails progress to the ground.

It is gentrification, The creator of ghettos, The boiling pot that breeds Bandits and outlaws. Due to an innate inequity Ingrained in our society.

The inhabitants of these slums Are also ethnic minorities. Due to the difficulties of their environment, Many grow up to live a life of crime And because they look alike. Criminal becomes associated with darker skin.

So when you’re walking on your own, Or playing with your kids in the park, And a brown fellow approaches, Then fear strikes your heart, And you look to see if there’s police in sight.

Ask yourself, why you’re afraid.

Is it because you think he’s a criminal, Or is it because he’s colored, I think the right answer is You’re afraid because he’s colored, and due to this He must be a criminal.

Is that racist? Sure it is, But that’s not the point.

His color is associated with criminality, Nevermind whether he is a criminal or not, And criminality is a by-product of poverty.

Poverty is what fuels many of the evils of society, And maintains injustices witnessed in marginalized communities. Without fighting inequality and destitution, Racism and many other forms of segregation Would always remain persistent.

Our ancestors preached this, From Garvey to Selassie, Du Bois can’t be forgotten, And many others who fought for freedom.

Thank you for reading. I got inspired to write this from a piece by Lucy (the eggcademic). She discussed how an individual’s or group’s struggle is exclusive to them and them alone and although an outsider may find some similarities. That person would never truly know what it feels like.

This very much resonated with me as it’s something I’ve thought about for quite some time. Poverty is a problem I’ve always advocated for but growing up I was fairly privileged and although it’s an issue I care about very much, it’s also something I don’t really know and ultimately can’t fully relate to. However, the mere fact of ‘can’t completely relate’, in my opinion does not translate to ‘don’t care at all’. I mean compassion is a part of being human.

I actually believe what triggered my activism was my privileged upbringing, I couldn’t understand why people who looked like me lived lives completely different from mine. More importantly, I grew up quite exclusively with my father, my parents got divorced when I was a toddler, so I was separated from my mother for most of my life. My father was quite well-off, and I in-turn reaped the benefits. On the other hand, my mother struggled for most of her life. She suffered from mental illness and she couldn’t really work or keep a job, in essence she lived quite a destitute life.

This really affected me because I was wholly dependent on my father and I couldn’t do anything materially to aid her situation. I more so couldn’t understand how my life was so comfortable and the woman that birthed me lived such a polar opposite life. What I’m saying is although I couldn’t completely relate, I did genuinely care and that feeling of not being able to accept inequity and injustice has followed me ever since.

Final footnote: Apologies to Lucy (the eggcademic), I know I’ve sort of gone off script and I’m not exactly responding to the prompt but I felt I just had to write this. Thank you so much for tagging me. Here’s her piece.