The Privileged Adventures of Michael

Episode one: Michael goes to school.One day, Michael set off for school. His mother packed him a nice lunch of bread and cheese, with vanilla ice cream for dessert. He walked to the school bus and there he met his best friend, an African-American child named Bob. He and Bob had been the best of friends their entire life. They got on the bus, and as the bus pulled away, Bob told Michael that he came out to his parents the night before. Michael was very proud of his friend and asked what his parents had said. Bob told Michael that Bob’s parents told him that being gay was just a phase. Michael started to feel really bad about the way that Bob’s parents dismissed his sexuality but then he thought about the xBox he would be getting for Christmas and felt better.In current events class the teacher talked to them about something called the “Wage gap.” The teacher told the class that women were getting paid less than men for the same exact work, and that there was very little paid maternal leave in the average job! This made Michael angry about institutionalized sexism but then Michael started to think about lunch instead and he quickly forgot his anger.When school ended, Bob and Michael decided to walk back home instead of taking the bus. On a busy street, they saw two friendly policemen! Michael waved and kept walking. Bob reached into his pocket to get some candy, and one of the nice cops yelled for Bob to put his hands in the air! He told Bob that he needed to do something called “Stop and Frisk” and then started reaching into Bob’s pockets! Bob told the cop that he felt that his human rights were being violated, and the policeman told him to shut up! Michael felt mad at the police, but then he realized that systematic prejudices did not affect him and he went on his merry way!Stay tuned for next week’s episode: Michael Successfully Goes to the Bathroom in North Carolina.