Interrogating Privilege

Confronting Privilege in Everyday Life

An anthology of transcripts, reflections & interviews

Celebrating the life and spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
Willamette University
January 21, 2008
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Introduction
How do we confront privilege? If we do not see it, are not presented with it
on a daily basis, how do we begin to recognize it and dismantle it? On
January 21, 2008, seven Willamette University students took on the task of
discussing these issues on a “privilege panel.” Each devoted time to
discussing six different types of privilege: able-bodied, class, heterosexual,
white, male and Christian. This collection of transcripts, interviews and
reflections were the result of the work and time put forth, by the authors, for
social justice.

Each year, Willamette University spends the last week in January celebrating
and honoring the life and spirit of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Among
the many events on campus, this year featured time devoted to
concentrated group discussions on issues of social justice and diversity.
Gordy Toyama, Office of Multicultural Affairs director and organizer of
Willamette’s Dr. King celebration, gave Willamette Senior and American
Ethnic Studies major Jenne Schmidt the opportunity to put together the
panel.

This anthology hopes to answer the questions posed above, much as the
panel did in January. By understanding and knowing the privilege in our
everyday lives, we are better equipped to not only engage issues of social
justice, but also become active in working for an equitable and just society. It
is important to realize that no one lives outside the systems of privilege and
oppression in our society. Nor do these six identities exist isolated or
separate from one another. As Patricia Hill Collins notes, our various
identities collide and intersect to create a matrix where privilege and/or
oppression operate simultaneously. This privilege can be received in multiple
ways and on multiple levels—individually, culturally, institutionally and
systematically.

My hope is that this anthology will inspire further research. I hope that it will
be marked, annotated and commented on. I hope that it will be photo
copied, emailed, and forwarded to friends, family, coworkers, naysayers,
passersby, and loved ones. I hope that it will be reflected upon, shared and
discussed. I hope that it will be read with an engaging heart and an open
mind. I hope that after reading through, this will inspire action. Knowledge is
worth little if we fail to apply it. To achieve a just society, we must become
activists where knowledge, love and compassion are the foundation of our
inspiration and motivation to achieve progressive and equitable change.
Read, grow, love, act.

-Tristan Knutson-Lombardo
Interrogating Privilege 3
Interrogating Privilege 4

The ability to understand privilege

An interview with Fred Schilla

Why is understanding able-bodied privilege significant for you?

Significant for others?
It is just one more way people get oppressed for things that they can't
control. It’s important because every single person who is able-bodied
usually doesn't even give it a second thought until they hurt themselves in
some way that debilitates them, whether its permanent or temporary. Even
then, once those people who experience it in a non-permanent fashion forget
about it and don't take it into further consideration. For me, it is something
that I always try to be aware of because I know what it is like to not have all
motor functions working.

Can you remember some of the examples or points you talked

about?
There are very little resources [at Willamette] for those people who are blind
or in a wheel chair or deaf or anything along those lines. Since there are few
resources, it doesn't make for a comfortable or accessible place for people
who need those things. Instead of attracting those people to our campus, it
actually pushes them away.

How else do you see able-bodied privilege operating in your life?

The greater society?
I see it everywhere. The majority of places are not accessible for any person
who is disabled. Where it is, it is usually not well done or maintained. So for
those that would rely on these things can't because the time, money and
energy to maintain them isn't spent.

How can someone take this privilege, or the knowledge of it, and
turn it into activism?
Be aware of the fact that our campus is not accessible and there needs to be
change. If you don't believe it just look at how wheelchair accessible our
campus is. How many automatic doors are there? How many elevators are
there? Ramps into buildings? If you don't see it then…well, I don't know what
to tell people besides to just look at our campus and imagine if you were
disabled in some form or fashion.

Some say that discovering unearned privilege is re-humanizing, has

this process of reflection/discovery been re-humanizing for you?
How so?
It has definitely made me much more aware of the privilege that I have
because I don't need something to help me get around. Before my own
experiences with being physically disabled I really didn't pay any mind to
people who have trouble getting in and out of places or dealing with
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inaccessibility. After having surgery on my shoulder and knees and not being
able to open doors or needing a ramp to get into places it made it painfully
obvious how inaccessible a majority of places are.
Interrogating Privilege 6

Social class at the family room table

During a break I spent with my family, I was desperately applying for

anything that might lead to a life beyond my liberal arts bubble. After writing
up a cover letter for a competitive internship (that I was unlikely to even get
an interview for), I showed it to my mother. She – having once managed
entire regions of people in her role as what we, her family, called “cooperate
mommy” – was quite good at these things but truthfully, I was also
concerned I had misused the word “whom”. After briefly looking it over, she
suggested tons of changes to the structure and word choices (few of her
suggestions actually dealt with spelling or grammar). We talked about the
changes and I made most of them, got an interview, and was offered the
position.

That conversation took place over our family room table but it was part of
something much larger and was actually a function of social class. The
changes that my mother made were about knowing how to use the right
language, which is in many ways almost like a code. Social class is more
intricate than the money one has in his or her pocket. Just like other aspects
of privilege, systems of class power and privilege need to be made visible
and individuals must strive to interrogate their own identities for a more
complete understanding of their own personal privilege.

Our quiet liberal arts bubble serves as an interesting example of this. I

participated in the “diversity” portion of last year’s new student orientation
program. At one point, the facilitator asked the audience (made up of mostly
the incoming class of first year students) to stand up if the statement was
applicable to them (with topics such as religion, hobbies, race, ethnicity, etc).
There was a vast array of topics covered but in hindsight two stood out.
“Stand if one or both of your parents hold advanced degrees” and “stand if
one or more of your grandparents hold advanced degrees.” To my surprise, a
vast majority of the audience stood after the first question and of those, a
large majority stayed standing for the second statement.

I am not making a profound observation here. Articles and news stories have
long been written about social class mobility (or lack thereof) and its
tendency to repeat itself but the ratio of the incoming class is certainly not
representative of a cross-section of the general public. However, this reality
is (perhaps) uniquely amplified at Willamette and maybe it is to be expected.
Willamette sends a large amount of students to grad school and the tuition
(even with financial aid) is quite high. Many of these students are probably
continuing on the same track as their parents. Regardless, it raises important
issues when considering what kind of community exists at Willamette.

Education level of a student’s parents affects which income bracket our

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students typically fall into but it also shapes the connections families have,
the neighborhoods they grew up in, and their own goals or their families’
expectations. The notion that one should explore, grow, and search out true
passion is seldom a reality for most. First generation college students often
see college as more of a route to a carrier. They are frequently not allowed
the enjoyment of exploration, as many in our liberal arts bubble do.

America is premised on the “American Dream,” but social class inequality will
continue to reproduce itself if never confronted; in this way it makes it one of
the hardest systems of privilege to confront. Understanding class privilege as
a set of unearned advantages is in direct conflict with the American notion of
a “meritocracy.” My parents both worked hard to provide me with wonderful
opportunities (one being my Willamette education) and that is not a bad
thing.

The conversation with my mother and the observation at first year

orientation are only two ways social class privilege has been present in my
life. I have tried to identify (for myself) other ways in which my social class
has privileged me. Each of us benefits from naming systems of privilege that
we may passively participate in. Class privilege, and more broadly social
class, often go unnamed and unseen but dramatically influences the way
communities are structured. Social class becomes something that is thought
of as a status that one must work hard to achieve and not, as I have grown
to know it: a set of largely unearned privileges that extend far beyond how
much money is in one’s pocket.

-Reflection by Will Nevius

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I had a dream…

Growing up, I used to have a dream, one where I would meet a beautiful,
young woman. We would start to date, maybe walk down the street holding
hands or show affection when we felt appropriate. And when the relationship
became seriousness enough, we would make it official on Facebook. My
relationship status would no longer say “single” and my profile picture would
feature us embracing or affectionate. We would probably end up getting
married, perhaps have a couple of kids, maybe adopt. In case of a life-
threatening emergency, I know I’ll not only be able to have full say in the
decisions that will affect whether my partner lives or not, but I will also be
given full access to information as legally recognized family.

But I have come to realize that this dream is really a privilege, one that
many, myself included, take for granted. Heterosexual privilege, like so many
of the others we have discussed today, is something that I have never been
challenged to reflect upon, act against, or work to change. Considering that I
never have to reflect upon this privilege, however, is significant because it is
manifested in my daily interactions with people.

My previous girlfriend and I never had to discuss whether we would hold

hands in public. We weren’t worried about the reactions we might receive
from passersby. The threat of awkward stares, menacing looks or violent
reactions was never a concern. We posted pictures of us together on
Facebook and we weren’t concerned about outing ourselves. Friends would
say we were “cute” together and I was never told that this relationship was
just part of a college “phase.” As a matter of fact, ever since I started dating
(immediately outing myself as heterosexual), I was never asked to speak on
behalf of my sexual orientation, nor was my sexuality the constant butt of
jokes. And I knew that each time I turned on the TV, I would see heterosexual
couples—it became normalized for me.

I have also been “reminded” by others of my sexual orientation. I had a good

friend in high school, and whenever I would go over to her house, her dad
would joke about how many female friends I had, then proceed to try and get
me to date his daughter. His heterosexual agenda (which even made me feel
uncomfortable, someone who identifies as heterosexual) always followed his
crude jokes.

In addition, I’ve come to realize that it hasn’t just been privilege that I’ve
received because of my sexuality. I’ve also lost some good friends and seen
others suffer. One of my favorite high school teachers is a lesbian. I had
gotten to know her pretty well and during my senior year discovered that she
was going to get married. While I new that I would miss her, since she and
her partner would have to move to Massachusetts in order to get married, I
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was extremely excited for her as well. Her relationship, however, fell apart
for reasons I still don’t know to this day. But what really stuck with me was
how something that I have always assumed as the normal trajectory of life,
getting married, did not quite mean the same thing for my high school
teacher as it did for me. While we both recognized the life-long commitment
that marriage denotes, it had always been something I would eventually just
check off my “to do” list of life. For my teacher, however, it was a significant
change in life. She was going to have to literally move across an entire
continent, leave everything and everyone she has known in Juneau, Alaska,
to get the same access to citizenship that I had taken for granted. For me, I
could be drunk in Las Vegas and accidentally get hitched, or walk down to
city hall, pay my fee, sign my paper, and I would never have to worry about
being denied medical information about my significant other, trying to adopt
a child, or the myriad of other benefits granted to heterosexual, married
couples.

So why does this all matter? Why bother sharing fantasies or telling personal
anecdotes? Because for me, knowledge has been empowering. If I want to
continue to struggle for social justice, be in relation with those who fight the
same battle, I have to understand how I fit into the picture. I am not outside
of the structures and systems that work to shape society. Yes, I do receive a
lot of privilege in my life, privilege that is unwarranted yet a birthright at the
same time. But my knowledge of this privilege has begun a life-long process
of reflection, and this reflection has lead to action. Just like when we were
kids, and someone cheats during a game of Shoots and Ladders, we didn’t
stand for it. So why do we stand for privilege that is unearned? When
someone cheats in a board game, everyone hurts. The points are unmerited
and it’s an unfair advantage.

My heterosexual privilege is unearned. I didn’t ask for it, yet I still receive it,
and it hurts my friends, it hurts myself, and it hurts my relationship with
others. But using my knowledge to actively work for social justice is re-
humanizing. It’s important work and it allows me to communicate with others
as to why I stay at the table—to engage and actively work to dismantle
injustice in a community that should value the worth of each member.

-Reflection by Tristan Knutson-Lombardo

Interrogating Privilege 10

Just call me racist

I’m Larkin Smith, a junior, American Ethnic Studies minor and English major, I
just returned from a semester abroad in Ecuador, and I’m racist.

Perhaps I should take a step back. I’m Larkin, I’m white, and I think that
makes me a racist. I’m not a racist by choice. I didn’t know I was racist until
a little over a year ago. I’m not a member of the Klan, I avoid racial slurs, I
don’t consciously hate on People of Color, and I grew up being taught to be
colorblind. But at the same time I leaned colorblindness, I learned every
stereotype and racial profile in the books. I learned to be a modern racist,
hiding under the cover of a colorblind society. I’m here today to talk about
white privilege, how I discovered it, how it affects my life, how it feeds me
into a racist system and potentially takes over my identity. And finally, how I
have a choice to use it as an anti-oppression tool, or to ignore it and
perpetuate injustice.

So let’s start from square one. I believe that as a white race, we don’t think
about the fact that we have a race, that we have a people, that we have a
culture. We don’t think about how our race affects others, how this part of
our identity that has become so invisible and perhaps hasn’t caused more
than a moment’s thought is perhaps what determines or guides most of our
lives. The white race is something that people in the United States,
historically, have wanted to become or fought to be members of because of
the power and status it births. It is an exclusive category, mistaken to be
biological and has been and is used as a tool to oppress others and establish
rank.

I just threw a lot of information in the room, and I know that all of us may not
be on the same page. So without giving us a three day lecture on the history
of race in this country and in the world, I’ll bring it back to specific ways that
I see white privilege, white dominance, in the U.S. I don’t have statistics
because I think many of us are wary of statistical information used as truth,
but I’ll pose a few ideas as to what examples we have of areas in which white
people are overrepresented or hold power, the ways we have privilege: the
media, politics, pop culture, Willamette. I don’t want to create a list for you,
because that’s already been done and that is something for each individual
to discover. Check out the Peggy Macintosh article in the pamphlet which
Jenne provided—it goes through things like having no trouble finding white
friends, finding bandaids of my skin color in the store, seeing white faces all
over the media and in children’s books, and I think the most important kernel
I’ve discovered on my own is that I never have to think about it. Our systems
and institutions are racially discriminating in this country, in my favor, and I
never have to claim that. And this system only works if white people
continue to be colorblind, continue to ignore the significance of race,
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continue to perpetuate the cycle.

So I’m hoping some of us are already recognizing our privilege as white

people, and perhaps we’re stuck in the next phase. The phase where we feel
guilty because of this newfound privilege, this thing we didn’t ask for but
can’t deny. I spent almost a year in that phase, terrified to say the wrong
things, analyzing the way I interacted with people, second-guessing
everything I’d ever learned about who I was and what I had, wondering if I
deserved any of it. And I don’t exactly know what broke me out of that, but I
think it’s tied to activism. I found people I could trust and talk to, I took an
active role in learning about my privilege and how it actually hurts me, and I
got over myself and started making mistakes while other people were there
to hold me accountable. Sitting in the guilt, hating my race, hating myself,
did absolutely nothing but hold me back. Instead of furthering my
relationships with People of Color, I was afraid to be offensive or hurtful. I
thought everyone could see right through me. I thought every Person of
Color secretly hated me. I think it was good to be there for a while, and I
think it’s a dangerous place to stay.

The most important thing I learned is that I have a choice. Once I

acknowledge my privilege, feel terrible enough about it to want to do
something, and feel compassionate enough to want to change things for
everybody, including myself, I have a choice to do that. I have a choice to
transform the oppressive white identity into which I was born into one
centered around social justice. I have a choice to use my whiteness to reach
other white people. I have a choice as to how that whiteness affects my
identity and my life, instead of being blind to it and allowing it to feed into
this oppressive system around us.

So, I’m Larkin, I’m white, I’m racist by a process of identity making that
begins at birth in our country, but I’m anti-racist by choice and self-
identification. And, my dream is that that part is becoming more powerful.
Thanks.

-Comments by Larkin Smith

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Privilege I didn’t realize I had

So when I told a good friend of mine that I was asked to be the “male
privilege specialist” for this panel, he laughed a little and said something
like, “Ha, that’s kind of funny, since you’re hardly the picture of stereotypical
masculinity.” Which is funny because it’s absolutely true. I am not the most
butch, masculine man I know, and I quit trying to be a long time ago. And I
felt kind of the same way for a long time – I mean, I’m gay, so I don’t have
male privilege, right?

For a long time, if I had thought about male privilege at all – which I wouldn’t
have thought about in those terms, but if I had – I would have related it to a
very personal level: power dynamics in relationships between men and
women. And so I felt like I was exempt from that since, you know, I have
relationships with other men. Additionally, I thought, our society is so
heterosexist, that I face a lot of kinds of oppression that straight men don’t.
And in some ways that is true – to prepare for this panel I was reading
through the “male privilege checklist” that’s in your packets, and there are
several things listed that don’t resonate with me, because of my experiences
living in a heterosexist world.

But as Jenne was saying, privilege operates on a lot of levels, in really subtle
ways. The fact still remains that I have been socialized my whole life as a
man, and people relate to me in society as a man, so therefore I have male
privilege. I have been raised and treated in ways my whole life that are
designed to make me feel more confident and comfortable and powerful in
all kinds of situations. My male privilege makes my living and being in the
world easier than that of people who aren’t “men.”

One of the most telling examples I’ve ever experienced of male privilege
was, somewhat ironically, in a class I took on feminism. There were 3 men in
the class and probably 10 or 12 women. So men were definitely in the
minority, but the three of us still dominated the conversations in class to a
considerable extent, sharing our opinions all of the time and steering the
discussions in directions that we were interested in. That class made it really
clear to me how men are socialized to believe that our opinions matter and
our voices deserve to be heard, even in a setting where we should be able to
see that we have more to learn than to say. I’m positive that none of us
meant to be overbearing or control the discussion, but that sort of privilege
was so ingrained in how we were used to relating to the world that it seemed
perfectly natural.

The process for me to become aware of my privilege has been a lot of

thinking and even more, a lot of listening to people who’ve thought a lot
more about it than I have. It’s also been about putting myself in situations
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where I’m forced to confront my privilege, and then using that perspective of
privilege to look at what’s happening. For example, I live with three amazing
women, and being able to get close to them has really helped me see how
my male privilege has made me relate to the world differently. Like for
example, I have a very different sense of safety and danger than they do,
which I think is in very large part the result of being a man who has been told
all my life that I’ll be safe if I walk alone at night. For me, confronting
privilege involves trying, in a respectful and humble way, to become aware
of how others experience the world, and then being open to seeing how and
why others’ experiences are different from my own. And as I said, that
involves a lot of thinking and even more listening.

I wish I could say that I’ve figured out my male privilege and I have it all
under control, but that would be a total lie. I haven’t, and I doubt I ever will,
which is exactly the way it should be. So my process of dealing with my
privilege and working on how to integrate that into my understanding of my
life and the work that I want to do in the world is very much an on-going
process. One aspect of my privilege is the ability to point out incidences of
sexism with much less risk of being labeled a radical or a feminazi, which is
one of the few good ways I’ve been able to “use” my privilege for social
justice. At the same time, though, part of being a good ally and working
against my privilege requires me to think much more critically about
situations where it isn’t appropriate for my voice to be the one pointing out
oppression, which is something I continue to work on. To me, being a good
ally first and foremost means being humble, recognizing that I still have a lot
to learn and a lot to grow on. Which for me means acknowledging that my
gay identity doesn’t mean I automatically get it. And being a strong ally
means really committing myself to that learning and growth, to working on
being a strong ally every day, all of the time, and not only when it is
convenient for me or when I feel up to it. It’s difficult and it’s tiring and
sometimes, more often than I’d like to admit, I want to quit. Which, you
know, I could – that’s part of my privilege. But this work is also really
empowering. It’s improved my relationships with people I care about, and
made me feel like I really understand the world better, and can make it
better. And it’s important work to be done. So it’s worth it.

-Comments by Elliot Williams

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Christian privilege: institutional, invisible,

ingrained
An interview with Lindsey Schneider

What enticed/motivated you to volunteer your time and thoughts for

this panel?
Having grow up in the church, I feel like it's something that I need to "own"
as part of my cultural heritage, even if there are lots of ways in which it's not
really working for me anymore. I disagree with a lot of the things the church
does and says, but as a "dissenting Christian" I feel like it's my burden, in a
sense, to work to change the church's role. I really believe that there is
potential for the church to do a lot of good in the world BUT it's going to take
a complete identity overhaul in order for that to happen. So I want to do
whatever I can to help bring that about.

Why is understanding Christian privilege significant for you?

Significant for others?
It's very significant to me in that it's a very tangible part of my struggle to
sort out my identity. As a Christian, I am privileged by society. As a queer
woman of color, the church oppresses me. How do I come to terms with an
institution that offers me privilege and yet simultaneously is fundamentally
rejecting me for who I am? I think this is something all members of the
groups the church oppresses have to come to terms with at some point if
they are really engaging their faith. It's perhaps even more significant for
members of dominant groups because Christian privilege is so easy to ignore
- I mean you think white privilege is hard to see, but it's not like white folks
go to a white caucus once a week where they get pumped full of information
about how white folks have always had a rough go of it and they can expect
the world to hate and oppress them because they're white. This makes it so
important for Christians who are white, men, etc. to recognize their privilege.

Can you remember some of the examples or points you talked

about?
I think the main thing I talked about was why Christian privilege is so
invisible to most people. As a religious studies scholar, I've looked from an
"academic" perspective at the history of the church - and when it started out.
Yes, Christians were oppressed. And you have to look at how the church
draws a lot of it's personal history from the experience of the Israelites, who
were definitely oppressed at various points throughout the "Old Testament"
period of history. So there is some historical/"factual" basis for this
contemporary phenomenon where Christians actually think that they are
oppressed or persecuted. Then you look at the primary text of Christianity,
which says in so many places that if you're a Christian, the world is going to
hate you, you're going to be persecuted and things like that. There's this idea
that is found in scripture and in modern non-canonical Christian writings, that
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as a Christian, you have to "persevere" because your life as a Christian is

going to be so difficult. You get the same thing from the pulpit in most
mainstream denominations, as well. So all of this contributes to the Christian
worldview that being a Christian has nothing to do with privilege.

In addition to this, the church's failure to recognize or acknowledge itself as

an institution functions to keep many Christians from seeing oppression as a
systematic issue, which means Christians often think that
oppression/discrimination is an issue of personal interaction. This means two
things - one, that Christians tend to think that the solution to issues like
poverty and racism are about individual interactions (being "nicer" to People
of Color), and that they allow individual interactions where they are
"discriminated" against for their beliefs to eclipse the larger systems of
power and privilege that they have access to because of their beliefs. In
other words, a conversation where a Christian person is told that they are
ignorant for buying into the church's dogma is going to be more
salient/significant to that person than the fact that all their religious holidays
are on every calendar and are observed by the government, or that their
religious morals are written into the country's justice system, etc. - and that
interaction will only reinforce their belief that they are "persecuted" as a
Christian.

I think I also talked about how another piece of the puzzle is that Christian
privilege is really institutionalized. I mean we can see how white privilege is
institutionalized but there is not an institution of whiteness itself, but since
the church is really an institution, it adds an element of invisibility to what's
going on.

How else do you see Christian privilege operating in your life? The
greater society?
I think that if you look around it's not that hard to see that the church has
basically jumped into bed with the American government (and many other
countries as well, I'm not trying to make the American church the only
culprit) which has led to the myriad of ways in which the government works
to act in the best interest of the church. And while the Christian church
certainly has a diverse body of membership (and actually statistically getting
more diverse), those in charge are still almost always straight white men,
especially at that level. Think of the spiritual leaders who get invited to
Washington - there's not exactly a plethora of women of color who have the
president's ear about this stuff. And when People of Color do get national
attention for leading the church, it's usually a critique of how radical they
are... just look at what happened with Obama's pastor Rev. Wright. He
acknowledges racism in the church and all of a sudden everyone connected
him to being anti-American.

Some say that discovering unearned privilege is re-humanizing, has

Interrogating Privilege 16

this process of reflection/discovery been re-humanizing for you?

How so?
Sorting out the intersections between being Christian, being a woman, being
queer, being a person of color... all of this is incredibly humanizing because
it's where these things come together in anyone's life that we are at our
most human. Anytime my identity is reduced to just one category or label is
an act of dehumanization, because it's negating a huge part of my existence.
Like Gloria Anzaldua says, the intersections are where we're most alive. So
learning to live there, and challenging myself to wake up each day and
decide to be my whole, inclusive self, and by "living the intersections" and
not letting other people reduce me to just one category either... it's the
process of becoming more human.

I'm still not at a place where I really have good feelings toward the church
and I honestly don't foresee ever really feeling like that again (although I
want to believe it's possible). But, thinking through issues like Christian
privilege at least allows me or forces me to acknowledge where I am
struggling with the church, and creates space for me to do some "freedom
dreaming" about what I want to see happen in the church or what kind of
faith community I would feel good about.
Interrogating Privilege 17

Postscript

Thank you for taking the time to read through this anthology. I hope that it
was introspective, inspiring, and worthwhile. I hope that this will inspire more
research and discovery, within and with others. As the next engaging heart
and open mind is getting ready to read through, I’ll end with several
questions that might further a commitment to social justice:

Who can this be shared with?

How can this knowledge be applied to other forms of privilege?

How do we take this knowledge and turn it into compassion and action?

What role does love and community have when discovering privilege?

How do the privileged end up hurting in the end?

What does your dream for liberation and social justice look like?