Through all of my involvement as Mason (ODIME, LEAD, student orgs, etc.), I’ve been exposed to many people from all walks of life and I’ve gone through many workshops that have shed light on my biases and privileges. Because of these workshops (e.g. Creating Community, UndocuAlly, Gatekeeper Training, etc.), I’ve become more aware of how my worldview affect how I perceive those around me.
To me, privilege is thinking that something isn’t a problem because it’s not a problem to me. One of the privileges that I have is the easy access to higher education because I am an American citizen. As a high schooler, I assumed that my classmates were born in the US and had the same rights and privileges as I did because that was my personal experience (ability to get a driver’s license, right to vote and work, etc.). I didn’t realize that many undocumented students don’t have the same privileges until after I came to Mason and met students who shared their struggles with me.
Although I went to a diverse high school, no one ever talked about identity or diversity on a systemic level. I only took Honors and Advanced Placement classes, so the majority of my classes were predominantly white. My most diverse classes were general electives like gym and personal finance. Because of my limited knowledge, I judged the ESOL students who didn’t apply themselves more in those classes. I looked down on them because thought they were slackers who just didn’t care about doing well and going to college. Reflecting back on things I learned about those students, I think some of them could have been undocumented which makes me much more understanding to their behavior now. If I were in their shoes and knew that college was unattainable because of my citizenship status, would I have cared about doing well in school? Probably not.
Although my actions never reflected my bias against the students in ESOL, I was still maintaining the status quo by holding those beliefs. “One is always in the system,” says Harry Brod, “The only question is whether one is part of the system in a way which challenges or strengthens the status quo.” On a personal level, I can confront my implicit bias by checking my privilege and challenging myself to learn more about cultures that I’m not familiar with. I believe knowledge and awareness is the first step to mitigating implicit bias. I can’t do anything to catch or correct my negative biases if I’m not aware of them to begin with. By making a conscious effort to check my biases, I am a better ally and can better advocate for people in marginalized communities.
“One is always in the system, the only question is whether one is part of the system in a way which challenges or strengthens the status quo.”
–Harry Brod
As an LC, I’ve worked to generate more discussion on social issues through the Brown Bag Lunch Series. Alex and I worked on those all year, and we had really great discussions on “The Iron Throne of Leadership,” “The Portrayal of Native Americans and Indigenous Communities in Popular Culture,” “Policing Black Bodies,” and “The Portrayal of Women in Popular Culture.” These Brown Bag Lunches were one of my favorite programming pieces because, on a societal level, I think identity and systemic issues need to be discussed more openly. The more people talk about core identities and share how it affects their lives on an individual, group, and institutional level, the more awareness is generated.