Standards of Lifting

Marginalized people face a disproportionate amount of forced introspective work: the desperate search for purpose, or an innate “goodness”, that will counterbalance the shaming we face from those in power. After swimming through oceans of ignorance and deeply engrained biases, we’re often left dripping with diffidence. Maybe if I work harder at articulating my personal experiences, phrasing them in ways that those who’ve never faced adversity can understand, then those blessed with better fortune will say “Oh, I see! That’s what I’m doing wrong!”

But the powerful continue to assign the heavy lifting to the powerless, then condemn them when they don’t lift high enough. We are punished, in big ways or small, when we don’t meet the “normal” people’s imbalanced standards of lifting.