But…

That doesn’t mean I support everything the US corporations do stateside or globally. Or that I believe the systemic abusive hierarchies around race, religion, culture, class, inborn abilities, sexual orientation, or gender are valid, just, or appropriate.

This fine line I walk is why I love our constitution. The idea of freedom of speech stops right at the hate speech mark, as it should. So I can disagree with our government and still be a participating citizen, if fact, some philosophers would argue that blindly agreeing to everything is the opposite of support. The ‘yes man’ is really a person that is counterproductive. Just like a friend isn’t one when they don’t speak candidly. I certainly wouldn’t call someone a pal that said everything was fine only to leave the house with spinach in my teeth. There’s no progress without opposition/ earnest criticism.

Our system has fine tuned on behaviors void of ethical business practice. These racial/cultural hierarchies giving major corporations the ‘righteous’ footing to proclaim maintain economic balance when in actuality the resources are being manipulated/power played out of the hands of those with even fewer citizens with basic needs met.

The biggest trick ever played as it inspires the individuals being pushed down to pain pass it to whoever has been proclaimed lower than. A pecking order through the global relationships trickling right into private homes where women and children are abused/micromanaged just the same as the resources that were paid a pittance to obtain. A passive, constant current that demands servitude and silence when in suffering.

Sure suffering is an option; one can numb/repress sober or drunk to avoid feeling the impact, but that doesn’t change the oppression. As I have learned since I was less than two years old, there is nothing about me that will change how another behaves. Even if I were highly thought of, I would still be ‘lower’ than someone who might feel righteous in suppressing my voice.

Sure I was born into a flesh sack that denotes my privileges. The ability to walk a personal favorite freedom not all are granted at birth. My skin a shade I shamed myself for ages is no different. I was dealt a hand of cards, only I can play what they grant me automatically.

The trick is discernment: one privilege can be played many ways. Someone attractive to current social standards could play it sexually for the prowess of finding a partner sure to maintain safety, one might use the same appearance to grant themselves humbled before believers, use the same card to gain many platonic friends/sales, or maybe even attract supporters to a just cause.

Here comes freedom to grant the choice of how to play the hand granted without any personal control of the randomized deck. Some might claim they haven’t the power to aide in social change when they have the cards in their hands to make the supportive change in every day. The idea “to be that somebody” moves from picking up a simple piece of trash to being kind to a new neighbor, speaking against hateful othering words in everyday conversations, to choosing acceptance even when the person presented is obviously different from self or familiar circumstances.

Social justice isn’t shifted in courtrooms alone or in the laws police enforce daily, it’s a safe grocery store where customers lend eachother a hand, a home life that can tolerate conflict without abusive explosions, it’s choosing understanding before blame and criminal assumptions… its grasping that a hungry human will behave less civilized because that is how our brains have protected us for eons.

Some cards/privileges grant automatic power even where we may not want the responsibility. It may seem too heavy to life alone if one focuses on the whole problem and all the people suffering. Simplification makes the (math) problem easier to grasp. Suddenly the power of a smile to change someone’s day is the social justice work that changes how a community greets different. No grand call or heavy globe for Altas to push up hill, just a grain of sand in effort to create a ripple which turns into a waterfall once enough feel safe enough to catch on.

It takes conflict tolerance, the choice to accept and learn from different, love for others… and love for self, as no one can pour from an empty cup. Loving self because of personal differences creates the key to play the privileged cards in a way that supports the whole. Noting that its gratitude for what is given that allows its recognition of privileges/ability/ways to play the cards in hand.

Sure some people are filling big roles that topple dominoes for multitudes. They didn’t get to a place where they could without individuals choosing to support their cause. How one votes is just as important as how one spends their day to day. It would be difficult to know who to support if there is no understanding of who/what they oppose.

So many people feel powerless in a place where major corporations have been given a platform to count for more than the people working for them. What will happen when the multitudes choose to stand with other nations being treated with the same cruelties magnified? All I know is that any such change starts stateside with people self aware of their privileges to allow themselves to hear the suffering of others just enough to motivate a personal choice for kindness and acceptance especially in the cases of differences. When that day comes for anyone, it marks a level of self acceptance/love that roots them into the core of being human.