Privilege: A Reoccuring Theme

When I was younger, I was often jumpy and thrilled when my mother walked with me to go to elementary school. I absolutely adored learning new concepts and skills everyday at school. I was so curious and interested in whatever the class was going over that day and thought fondly about my education. Years passed and as I reached high school, although I still put in quality work for the grade, I have lost the drive to be fully engaged and passionate about school. For me, education has become something of a chore due to a lack of an engaging learning environment. So you can understand my joy when, on the morning before my second day of class started, I found myself looking forward to whatever I was going to learn that day. I looked forward to having more discussions with my classmates. I looked forward to interacting with my professor. For the first time in a very long time, my passion for learning had been awoken once again.

In the morning, we were only with Dean Almandrez for the first hour. At about 10AM, the Social Justice and Women & Leadership students gathered at Salomon 001 for an orientation focused on listening skills. I wasn't sure what to expect of the lecture but I ended up absolutely loving it. The orientation was led by Kisa once again. I sat in front of the lecture hall next to Lauren from Michigan and Evana from Greece. We went over negative non-verbal signals, as well as positive non-verbal signals, and had partner exercises to go along with them. We also practiced asking open-ended questions. Kisa is an amazing public speaker and had such insightful things to say. After the lecture I went over to her to tell her how I enjoyed the orientation and admired her public speaking. I was inspired when she lightly grabbed my shoulders and told me that I was headed there too. To be told that you hold that kind of potential, from a person of her caliber reinforces my confidence in leading.

Me, Kalpana, Ashley, Mahi, and Gaby in class.

During the afternoon part of the class, Dean Almandrez went over privilege with the class. Privilege in this case was referring to the advantage one has due to superficial traits, regardless of individual merit or flaws. Part of knowing about your own privilege was the idea that if you are born with certain features or characteristics, such as socio-economic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., then you are automatically placed under a certain level of privilege whether you want it or not. It was also very interesting to learn about allies. Allies are those in a dominant position, born with privilege, who want to help the minority -- the oppressed. However, they cannot act as a savior. Dean Almandrez quoted that, in the case of a minority, "Nothing about us, without us, is for us." This quote struck with me because it's accurate. Sometimes an ally can go into an organization seeking to "save" the inferior, when in reality, the "inferior" didn't need saving.

The orange were seated at comfortable tables, the green were seated in just chairs, while the blue were on the floor.

The lesson today focusing on privilege really went in hand with later events when I and a few other friends were invited to attend the Hunger Banquet, taking place at the BeU Lounge.It was a very interesting, well-planned event in order to raise awareness about certain privileges.

As students lined up outside of the BeU Lounge to enter the banquet, we were each given a card with either an orange, green, or blue. I was a part of the green group. The orange group was called in first, and were served bread, pasta, salad, and were served drinks in fancy cups. Next, the green group was escorted inside, being served only rice, beans, chips, and drinks in paper cups. Lastly, the blue group went in last and was served only rice, with no forks so they had to eat with their hands. A very strange thing occurred when this happened. Those at the table were in their own, secluded area, seemingly preoccupied with themselves, at a content state. While those on the floor occasionally asked the orange group if they could have some of their food. A slideshow was then put on called "Hard to Swallow" which gave harsh but very real statistics about poverty and hunger. It was a reality check that made me really think about my own privilege.