Seeing the Truth of Inequality

BEING BORN INTO ONE RACIAL OR ECONOMIC GROUP OR ANOTHER OFFERS YOU GREATER OR LESSER ACCESS TO INFLUENTIAL NETWORKS THAT CAN GIVE YOU THAT ALL-IMPORTANT LEG UP.

Back when my daily commute was a two-mile power walk through Manhattan, my idea of “fighting traffic” didn’t mean dodging cars or dashing across intersections seconds before a red light. It was more literal. When drivers sped through a yellow light and blocked my crosswalk, I’d pound on their trunk as I edged behind their bumper: “Nice going, idiot!”

And if they looked around for the culprit, they never suspected it was me. Female, white, middle-aged me.

Getting away with pedestrian road rage is the least of the privileges that age,