September 14, 2015 - 14:32
When Nia was first introduced to us in this essay, I thought her character was meant to serve a positive role in this situation. She spoke of growing up in a bubble and wanting to change that, she said, “our childhood molds us but it does not make us who we are.” This, to me, meant that she knew she was ignorant of many issues but that she wanted to unlearn her prejudice thoughts and become conscious of social justice issues. I thought this was going to be the main idea of this essay. That “slippage” allows room for growth because it is not intentional prejudice, but internalized prejudice. And though I was skeptical of how true that was, I did not doubt Nia and her hope to become better. Nia continues her journey and states that Bryn Mawr’s norms (white, queer, upper middle class, atheist, liberal) serve as a cultural identity and cause everyone to feel the need to conform to them in order to “foster this sense of togetherness.” She slightly lost me with this argument because I don’t believe anyone feels the need to conform to these things. Especially being queer, considering that the world is incredibly evil to queer people. I felt this came off in a “woe is me” tone, where Nia felt that her not belonging to a certain description meant she was being marginalized. Which is in no way true. However, I still did not doubt Nia and her hope to become better. Then the story took a drastic turn: “Two semesters later, Nia and her roommate, who is from Georgia, hang a rainbow flag out of one of their dorm windows, and also display a Confederate flag, first in the hallway and then, after efforts to seek its removal, from their second window. They also lay a line of duct tape labeled “Mason-Dixon Line” in the passageway leading to their room.” I was shocked to read this. It completely changed my perspective on Nia. She was not thinking of the trauma that the confederate flag would have on the people of color her floor. The Mason-Dixon line outside of her dorm served as an isolating barrier from her and the rest of the campus that she no longer felt a need to “conform” to. If she was not advocating for growth and understanding what was she advocating for? She sat in a class, at least twice a week talking about intersectional feminism and how to make sure women of color are welcomed in a movement that so often excludes us, but she did not take in any of that information. She did not leave the classroom ready to challenge her internalized prejudice, but rather ready to feel pride in it. So where is the hope? This “safe house” that Bryn Mawr strives to be is still not safe. Bryn Mawr isn’t having the difficult conversations (of a contact zone) in hopes of not triggering anger on campus, but it is ignoring the issues of people of color on campus that it prides to have. If Bryn Mawr wants a diverse community it has to put in the effort to make this a place people of color feel truly welcomed and valued. This situation demonstrates how it feels to be wanted to fit a statistic and ridiculed by desensitizing our violent history. I want to connect this to another part of the text that states “individual empowerment is valued less than communal harmony.” This is not okay. We come to this college in hopes of leaving better people, not in hopes of pretending that issues of race no longer exist. We need to be “friendly trouble makers” and challenge our community toward progress