Freedom, particularly in the United States, is often presented as a fundamental and inalienable right, but for many it remains a privilege. Conceptually, it may be a right, but in practice its exercise is often dictated by economic status, racial background, and systemic inequities. From financial instability to the justice system, barriers to true freedom remain deeply entrenched.
While personal resilience plays a role in how we deal with this, systemic issues ensure that the path forward is more difficult for some than for others. Understanding these barriers is a first and inescapable step in working towards greater justice and freedom.
The cost of getting out: Legal and financial hurdles
One of the most egregious examples of inequality is how financial status dictates a person’s ability to navigate the justice system. It’s almost accepted wisdom that if someone gets arrested, they need only post bail and they can then await their trial as a free individual. However, for those who lack the financial means to navigate this system, even a minor charge can become an event that increases the precarity in which they already live. There are bail bondsman services out there that can be relied on regardless of budget, but finding the right ones takes time and it still costs. Understanding how your freedom costs something will help you to see whether you need a bail bond service in the first place.
Bail has a purpose: it is intended to ensure that an individual under charge will return for their court dates. In practice, it disproportionately affects lower-income communities and individuals. While those with financial resources or wealthy associates can afford to secure their release, others remain within the prison system simply because they can’t pay. For such people, bail bonds can be a blessed release, offering a way for people to regain a modicum of freedom while awaiting trial. Despite this, the system still highlights an inescapable issue: justice has a price tag, and marginalized communities face a higher one.
Economic disparities and the cycle of debt
Aside from the justice system, financial inequality gets its fingers into nearly every aspect of life. The racial and gender wealth gap, predatory lending practices, and disparities in access to high-paying jobs all create systemic barriers that make financial stability a pipe dream for many individuals and families, throughout generations. In short, it’s expensive to be poor.
As an example, payday loans and high-interest credit facilities are disproportionately marketed to lower-income individuals, who are placed in a position where these may be their only financial options. Although they may provide short-term relief – allowing you to replace an appliance that has been pushed beyond its useful life, for example – in the longer term they trap people in a cycle of debt, making it more difficult to save, invest, or insure anything from your health to your home.
Without the opportunity to build wealth, poverty perpetuates through generations, widening the gap between those riding the wave and those drowning beneath it. The myth of meritocracy even makes people who struggle feel like it’s their fault, with people who have never genuinely struggled calling for them to simply pull themselves up by the bootstraps.
Education and employment gaps
Access to a quality education is another dividing line between those who can achieve upward mobility and those who remain behind the curve. Underfunded schools in marginalized communities will often lack the resources needed to provide students with the skills, opportunity, and time available to their wealthier counterparts.
In schools that often rely on teachers to pay for textbooks and writing materials, the possibility of access to advanced courses, college prep programs, or one-to-one mentoring is slim. Students from lower-income backgrounds – who cannot possibly be held responsible for their position in life – start at a disadvantage from the moment they enter the education system, and that gap is only ever likely to widen throughout their formative years.
For those who do manage to secure a degree against these odds, the employment landscape puts further challenges in their way. Studies have shown that hiring discrimination persists, with applicants from marginalized backgrounds facing bias in recruitment. As people get older, the gap doesn’t narrow; it widens.
Housing inequality and the wealth divide
One of the most reliable ways to build wealth has always been homeownership – but discriminatory housing practices have tended to prevent marginalized communities from accessing such opportunities. Black and brown communities were for a long time systematically denied mortgages in a process known as redlining, and of course it created long-term economic disadvantages. Even once redlining was outlawed, its impacts remained in place – lower property values, fewer resources, and discrimination in lending practices are just a few examples of how this policy has disadvantaged marginalized communities into the 2020s.
For renters, the situation isn’t much better if at all. Rising rents, increasing gentrification, and a lack of affordable housing (often specifically perpetuated by homeowners) result in people spending the bulk of their income just to have a roof over their heads. This again results in an inability to save, invest, or ever buy a home, killing economic mobility even more than before.
Challenging systemic barriers
Awareness of the issues is important, but mere awareness never changed anything. Change requires action on every level possible. While the many problems above disproportionately affect some communities more than other, they should be of concern to anyone in any community who genuinely values “liberty and justice for all” as something more than a slogan. What are some ways a person can help challenge systemic faultlines?
Advocacy
If you have the resources, getting involved with organizations seeking to promote things like prison reform or affordable housing is a good place to start. If you’re not in a financial position to boost these efforts, using your knowledge to advocate for more vulnerable people in your community can be very welcome.
Support financial literacy programs
Debt is a particularly pernicious threat to marginalized communities, because lenders offer it to them on the assumption that they won’t understand the risks, locking them into endless repayment cycles. Donating to, or volunteering with, organizations that provide education and alternatives in this regard can financially empower people.
Fight for fair wages and hiring practices
There’s no denying this fight is a difficult one: the prevailing wind is against greater equality and diversity, but employers who see the value of those qualities can be pushed to take a stand and shift the conversation. Join groups pushing for better wages and fairer hiring practices; if nothing else, it can create reliable spaces that provide employment and economic opportunity for the most marginalized.
Let’s be honest: the fight for fairness is a long and often thankless one, but it only becomes more important with time. Systemic inequality is baked into the world in which we live, but it needs conscious individuals to fight against it if we are to overcome its impacts. That’s a heavy weight of responsibility, but it is not without reward.
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