Privation: noun: the state of being deprived; especially: lack of what is needed for existence
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/privation
From: “Quicksand” by Nella Larsen, Chapter 25 – Page 160
“And this, Helga decided, was what ailed the whole Negro race in America, this fatuous belief in the white man’s God, this childlike trust in full compensation for all woes and privations in “kingdom come.”Sary Jones’s absolute conviction, “In de nex’ worl’ we’sall recompnse’,” came back to her.”
The word privation is used to show how much things black people in America have been denied due to their skin color. Helga is upset because black people are willing to put up with being deprived of basic civil rights because of the afterlife that awaits them.
You’ve got the right sense of the word, but you haven’t explained the significance of it in its context. It’s not just that black people have been denied, but the belief that such deprivation will be compensated for in the afterlife–something Helga comes to doubt as she sees Christianity as a tool manipulated to perpetuate that racist privation.