TERRY SARTEN: Uneasy privilege amid racism and euthanasia

TOUGH: Barack Obama gave Americans a jolt about privilege and prejudice.PHOTO/AP

FOLLOWING on from my satirical piece last week about privilege, there is more to consider.

It is great to hear President Barack Obama talking like the leader we all thought he could be and addressing privilege.

He is sounding angry and focused. He used the "nigger" word to emphasise how times have changed, but so little change has come over time for many of those who are descendants of slaves and lived under Jim Crow. He said that while it was no longer a polite thing to say that was only one aspect of the continued racism and entrenched privilege that existed on many levels in US society.

He was issuing a challenge to consider a past defined by slavery and discrimination that did not diminish in its hurt over generations. He provided a fierce reminder to all US citizens that although this particular word has become a stone around the neck of social discourse, it is a point of reference, a sign that indicates another direction is essential to address the matter of privilege and prejudice.

He also appears to be talking tough on the epidemic of gun violence.

The shooting of black worshippers in a church by an angry white male powered by notions of white supremacy has shocked the world. It showed a side of a society that has produced so much innovation and creativity that still struggles to respond to a history infused with institutional and personal racism and a reckless gun culture.

To hear members of the National Rifle Association suggest that if all those in the church that day had been carrying weapons it would have prevented the killings is like listening to madness.

The notion that US citizens should be able to carry a gun anywhere to protect themselves from others carrying guns is absurd, but still it is touted by assorted gun nuts and Republicans as a privilege enshrined in the constitution.

Slate magazine presented the following facts in a recent article on the issue of gun control: Children between the ages of 5 and 14 in the United States are 17 times more likely to be murdered by firearms than children in other industrialised nations. More American children and teenagers died from gunfire in 2010 - a single year - than US troops in Afghanistan since 2001.

I say go for it, President Obama. Shake it up.

The other matter where privilege influences thinking is euthanasia.

We are in the midst of a debate that could only exist in a privileged country.

In so much of the world surviving and staying alive is a constant struggle and I imagine in many poor countries the notion that you would hasten death must seem strange. We have access to advanced medical technologies that can only be dreamed of in many parts of the world and this privilege has altered our perceptions of what life and death means.

We feel the need to try to control everything - because we think we can.

With the medical science and expertise available to us, we feel we should use it regardless of the privilege it affords us to even have a debate on the matter of euthanasia.

I have had the privilege of spending time with people whose final days have been in palliative care and witnessed a dignity that cannot be easily explained.

We live in a nation that shelters us in privilege. To advocate for euthanasia is to deny the reality of the struggle to live that takes place in countries where the hardships are unimaginable.

-Terry Sarten is a writer, musician and social worker - feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz