One of Ms. Burton’s seminal moments in social justice came during her “first privilege walk.” She writes that the “instructor lined everyone up at the end of a hallway and told us to stand side by side. She said, “It’s easy. Just follow the instructions.””
Then the instructor told members of the privilege walk to take a step back if they had “books in their house” and had parents who “tell you that they love you everyday,” among other things.
According to Ms. Burton, she was “far out ahead of the majority of the group, almost in complete isolation,” meaning she was drastically move privileged than her compatriots.
“That was the moment that I physically realized that because of my background and because of my incredible communities of support, I was well positioned in life,” she writes, emphasis hers. “And it wasn’t fair. I completely broke.”
After the activity, she called her mom, weeping: “On the phone with my mom crying, I tried to put into words just how unfair it was. I felt like a sham — trying to engage in the fight for social justice and health equity despite not experiencing nearly as much struggle or pain as my peers.