Me.

I often consider my gender and my race to be the identities that have the biggest effect on my life. As a male, I feel safe and comfortable in most places at most hours. I walk alone at night on a regular basis and never think much of it. I can recall a few times in my own life when I’d expected my female friends to have the same feelings of security, and then realized that many of them don’t – and with good reason. Some had a few experiences that made them weary of certain places and times. Those who didn’t could rattle off the names of their friends who did. And as for me, I almost never thought about my safety unless I was participating in something that required a waiver.

But maybe that means I’ve got extra time to think a bit more about the safety of others. When I went to Thailand in high school, our group was walking beside the road when a man rode by on a motorcycle and slapped a girl in our group’s butt. From then on, whenever we made our long treks across town, a few of the guys on the trip would walk closest to the road so the girls wouldn’t have to. It was subtle and simple, but it was helpful. In Zambia and in America, the best way to operate with my privilege is to use it to help those who don’t have the same privilege. Practically, this could mean anything from accompanying people so they don’t have to walk alone to discouraging inappropriate talk.

My race is a big aspect of my identity because I think about it often. Along with blackness comes a set of ideas about who I should spend time with, what I should enjoy, and how I should talk that are imposed on me by those who are black and those who aren’t. In order to navigate these rules and judgments, I have to constantly ponder about race.

When it comes to privileges and disadvantages, both exist depending on the situation and the context. In Zambia, I assume the fact that I'm black will help me not to draw attention to myself in instances where I might have otherwise. In the same way that I’ll be watchful for opportunities to use the advantages associated with being male to be of service to the women I our group, I plan to be diligent about employing the advantages of being black in Zambia as needed.

As a global citizen, I must realize that my identities give me different amounts of power in different situations and that, in the words of Spiderman’s Uncle Ben, “with great power comes great responsibility.”