Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Privilege comes from the Latin privilegium, meaning a law for just one person, a benefit enjoyed by an individual or group beyond what is available to others. *Any right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person or group beyond the advantages of most.

Do we exercise or impose privilege in this country? If you say no, you my friend are a liar. We absolutely witness privilege every day, whether it is White, Male, Rich, Size, you can come up with a thousand categories of having a distinct advantage based on some physical or other perceived attribute.

Our society has been built on privilege all the way back as far as humanity has imposed its will on whatever opposed it. Privilege was exerted in ancient times by the strongest and that morphed into those with physical prowess to proclaiming themselves and their offspring as Ordained by God to lead. They made the decree and far be it for any other is challenge that declaration. The Royal Families of Europe have maintained this lofty claim for centuries and based on their wealth a privilege, far be it for a mere commoner to question their position.

This country was built on privilege, the original founders built in the patriarchy because only while male land owners where permitted a voice in the means and methods that governed, all others were just subject to the privileged self-named authority. It took more nearly 100 years after our independence for slaves to be recognized as human and that was vociferously opposed by nearly half the people (white men). It is 2023 and there still isn’t an ERA because not enough states have recognized equal rights for women.

The 15th amendment gave all (men) not matter race the right to vote in 1870 but the white men that held the reigns of power made it exceedingly difficult for anyone other than themselves and those who looked like them to exercise that right. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Wow 95 years after the amendment was passed someone made an effort to let the more inclusive change to the constitution actually work. It was a nice thought be we haven’t completely kept our promise.    

The 19th Amendment makes it illegal to deny the right to vote to any citizen based on their sex, which effectively granted women the right to vote. It was first introduced to Congress in 1878 and was finally certified 42 years later in 1920. So, the white men said that women could vote 8 years after they said ‘all’ men could vote but it took 42 years and the suffrage movement for it to actually happen. Three years after the ratification of the 19th amendment, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was initially proposed in Congress in 1923 in an effort to secure full equality for women. It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorce, property, employment, and other matters.

In 2017, Nevada became the first state in 45 years to pass the ERA, followed by Illinois in 2018 and Virginia in 2020!

Now that the necessary 38 states have ratified, Congress must eliminate the original deadline. A joint resolution was introduced in Congress currently to do just that. On 21 January 2021, U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), and Congressman Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) announced the bipartisan legislation, which reads simply: 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That notwithstanding any time limit contained in House Joint Resolution 208, 92nd Congress, as agreed to in the Senate on March 22, 1972, the article of amendment proposed to the States in that joint resolution shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution whenever ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States.

This legislation, when passed, will eliminate one of the procedural barriers standing in the way of enshrining gender equality in the U.S. Constitution.

It is insane that as a nation that proclaims itself to a beacon of freedom and equality that we are still having this fight. And, When this finally passes will there be pay equity or will the privileged appose it based on their presumed position once again.

Pay equity will definitely be a rant for another day.