How to pronounce "affluent"

it really sank in how completely I was at their mercy.

I think we're all normalized from a young age

to the idea of police officers and arrests and handcuffs,

so it's easy to forget how demeaning and coercive a thing it is

to seize control over another person's body.

I know it sounds like the point of my story

is how badly treated I was because of my race --

and yes, I don't think I would've been detained if I were white.

But actually, what I have in mind today is something else.

What I have in mind is how much worse things might've been

if I weren't affluent.

I mean, they thought I might be trying to plant an explosive,

and they investigated that possibility for an hour and a half,

but I was never put in handcuffs,

I was never taken to a jail cell.

I think if I were from one of Washington DC's poor communities of color,

and they thought I was endangering officers' lives,

things might've ended differently.

And in fact, in our system, I think it's better to be an affluent person

suspected of trying to blow up a police station

than it is to be a poor person