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2005-09-12 - 3:24 p.m.

One of the things I appreciate about being at Scripps--maybe the thing I appreciate the most--is how it has enhanced my ability to recognize bias. I am taking Introduction to Black Studies and it has helped me to recognize the ways in which I am racist. I have taken part in a group whose goal was to confront issues of white privilege and have seen how I have benefitted from being white (and from being middle-class). I have take women's studies courses which have helped me to recognize the ways I have internalized sexism. In my spare-time reading, I am reading a book that explores a female framework for the world rather than denying that such exists (meaning that the male framework for the world isn't framework, it's fact). Being here, a place where people confront bias and don't just accept it, has made me more attuned to subtle forms of bias in myself and others.
It's interesting then, when I reflect on some people I know, many of whom consider themselves progressive or liberal, that I can vividly remember instances of blatant bias. Many of my friends have said things that are unquestionably racist or sexist without displaying any recognition that that is the case. Or perhaps thinking it is funny? (I really don't know) In fact, I see it on diaryland all the time!
A part of me wants to laugh it off as ignorance, but I can't. I can't. I think it's wrong and I just wanted to put that out there so that I wouldn't be letting things that are unacceptable to me slide.
I am a part of a group of kids that have grown up well-off, with plenty of advantages, plenty of privileges, within a culture of partriarchy and male dominance, within an overwhelmingly white culture, and I don't want to sit back and pretend like I haven't learned any better than to wholesale swallow down misogynistic and racist views.
When I am biased, I want to be confronted with it. When others are biased, I want them to have it pointed out to them. I hope I can stand up for what is right and true, and at the same time I hope I don't lose sight of the work I still need to do and become self-righteous.

 

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