“Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” –Alice Walker
Did you know that Asians have surpassed Latinos as the largest immigrant group in the U.S.? Can you name 5 Asian countries without feeding into the stereotypical bullsh*t like the photo below?
A subscription to JSTOR is insanely expensive. A guy who tried to make the articles we all take for granted publicly available was convicted of a federal crime and subsequently killed himself.
A few Saturdays ago, I walked into the Pathways of Privilege event and was immediately struck by the hum of conversation, the colorful booths, and the energy of people engaged in learning. The purpose of the event was, according to the Facebook page, “to create a platform for different student groups to discuss different forms of privilege that we do not normally pay attention to. This includes topics such as Climate & Environment, Documentation & Immigration, Education, Health, Race, Religion, etc.” Organized by the Quest Scholars Network at Davidson and co-sponsored by ACAA, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Amnesty International, Better Together, BSC, College Democrats, Davidson Animal Welfare Group, Davidson College Library, Davidson for Climate Justice, Davidson Refugee Support, Dean Rusk, Half the Sky, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., OLAS, and Rape Awareness Committee, the event filled the 900 Room with a variety of groups pointing out different modes of privilege.
The whole thing was very interactive. The people who ran the booths were eager and excited to talk about the work they had done, and there were games that helped put you in the position of questioning your own assumptions and of placing yourself on the spectrum of privilege. As someone who has been in a lot of these conversations, especially ones revolving around race and/or gender and/or sexuality, it was really interesting to see some of the discussions I’m familiar with AND learn about other conversations that are happening right now.
Every so often, a poet from Free Word would stand up and present a poem. I saw Evan Yi’s, and it was haunting and intense, which added a depth to the event that I had lost in the excitement of seeing people and learning things. The addition of such an art form helped to ground the theoretical and factoid based conversations in the true human experience, and that’s something a lot of these events forget to do. I’m grateful to the Quest Scholars who helped organize this event and to the people who believed in it enough to contribute their time and effort.
Next time, I can only hope the entire campus shows up to learn and teach.
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