“Racial Neutrality” Is A Myth

“I am calling bullshit on the fact that the same people that are stretching red tape across bureaucratic processes such as child-support modifications, and family reunification, and section 8 vouchers, and long-term affordable housing, and health-care benefits, and expungements are the same people that are drawing white chalk marks around young black bodies. I am calling bullshit on the irrelevance of life, impoverished life, black life, lowborn lives. I will not be your scapegoat, and my brothers and sisters and sons and uncles will not be the kid in your basement. “

Rumpus contributor Melissa Chadburnhas a very powerful essay at Dame Magazine in response to the “Stand Your Ground” law, Jerry Seinfeld’s post-racial America, the cost of privilege, the murders of innocent black youth, and what it means to leave Omelas.

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Ashley Perez lives, writes, and causes trouble in Los Angeles. She has a strong affinity for tattoos, otters, cat mystery books, and actual cats, but has mixed feelings about pants. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She runs the literary site Arts Collide and does work of all varieties for Women Who Submit, Entropy, Jaded Ibis Press, and Why There Are Words. You can find her on Twitter at @ArtsCollide.

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The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers our readers may already know and love. We want to bring new perspectives into the conversation that will make us all look deeper.

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