I’m sitting here at the local playground watching the neighborhood boys play an intense game of soccer. When they say playground, what they really mean is the large, lopsided, uneven plot of dusty red-dirt down the road. At each end of the “field” is a makeshift goal formed from a few rods of bamboo.
Most of the young men are wearing tattered shoes, but they are shoes non-the less. One guys plays completely barefoot. My host tells me he was thirteen years of age the first time he ever wore shoes. He says he doesn’t understand why Americans complain so much—American babies have shoes before they are even born.
To the right of me are a few smaller kids kicking back and forth their own soccer ball—this one is made of scrap plastic bags and held together by rubber bands. To my left half a dozen Rwandan children are gathered. A few reach out cautiously to feel our Mzungu skin and hair. The others giggle and run away when we greet them.
Most of their feet are clothed in nothing more than the dirt that they have been running around in. They’re wearing the same clothes they were wearing last week. And the week before that. And the week before that too. One kid’s shirt is so covered in grime that I can barely make out the pattern that is supposed to be there. Another girl—maybe five years old—is wearing a shirt that is actually an infant’s onesie with the snaps left loose and resting near her bellybutton.Another’s has so many holes in it that I wouldn’t really call it a shirt anymore.
I laugh at the thought that in America clothes with holes are called fashion. Here clothes with holes are just life. Looking around it is evident that not one child is lacking in joy. I laugh again because in America kids never seem to have enough to be happy.
This makes me think in ways that I haven’t before… It makes the privilege that is wrapped up in American statements of poverty glaringly obvious. It makes me angry when I hear friends back home declare themselves victims for not having the same privilege as another.
Please hear this: Just because you do not have one privilege, does not mean you are not privileged.
If you have white skin you are privileged.
If you are a man you are privileged.
If you are a citizen of the United States you are privileged.
If you speak English you are privileged.
If you possess any USD you are privileged.
If you live in a house or apartment you are privileged.
If you have easy access to running water you are privileged.
If you can drink water from the tap you are privileged.
If your home has plumbing you are privileged.
If you have a television you are privileged.
If you have a smart phone you are privileged.
If your smart phone has service, you are privileged.
If you have ever attended school you are privileged.
If you have a different outfit for every day of the week you are privileged.
If you have ever had a meal at a sit down restaurant you are privileged.
If you wear shoes you are privileged.
If you use a washing machine and/or dryer you are privileged.
If you have a car you are privileged.
If your mode of transportation is anything other than walking you are privileged.
If you have insurance you are privileged.
If you are able-bodied you are privileged.
If you have all your limbs, fingers, toes, even teeth, you are privileged.
If you walk without a limp or without a bent form you are privileged.
If you have access to American healthcare you are privileged.
If you know how to read you are privileged.
If you know how to write you are privileged.
If you eat three balanced meals a day you are privileged.
If you go to the store and your number of food options exceed the number of you fingers you are privileged.
If you had manufactured toys as a child you are privileged.
If you have heat or AC you are privileged.
If you have a job that pays even minimum wage you are privileged.
If you have electricity you are privileged.
If you can speak openly about your religion or beliefs you are privileged.
If your country recognizes your religious holidays you are privileged.
If you have never experienced war in your homeland you are privileged.
If you can afford to put yourself into debt in order to go to college or make a large purchase you are privileged.
If you are reading this you are privileged.
You are privileged.
