Build on the teach-in to move forward together

Say It Like It Is: Going beyond 'we don't say that at Bowdoin'

Since I first stepped on Bowdoin's campus, I’ve repeatedly heard the phrase, “We don’t say that at Bowdoin.” It still makes me cringe. I was encouraged by ResLife during my sophomore year as an RA to use it if someone said something offensive and I wanted them to stop, but I could never bring myself to do it. Although this phrase might have been created and repeated by well-intentioned people, it is damaging to Bowdoin and the society that we are a part of. This phrase is used to manipulate people into not using certain words by making them feel like they're not part of the Bowdoin community if they use them.
When we use this approach, we miss the point. Not using certain words because “we don’t say that at Bowdoin,” or because it can hurt someone’s feelings or because it is not PC is not the approach to language we need. Bowdoin students are capable of much more. Instead, we need to look deeper and question why we use these words and what harmful ideas can be reflected and reproduced through our language.
The social censorship that lacks any type of deeper questioning has several problems and helps explain why we still have people on this campus who anonymously write and say outright racist things. Let me be clear: I am not saying that people at Bowdoin should use racist, sexist, or homophobic words. I am saying that we need to delve deeper into the meaning of these words and the unequal power structures these words reflect so we can start to put an end to them. Telling people not to use certain language because it might hurt other people’s feelings is problematic. First, it places the blame on the person who is doing the “feeling.” Second, it individualizes what is in reality a systemic issue. And frankly, it just doesn't work. By focusing so much on the feelings of the people who are hurt, Bowdoin is focusing less on the people who said it and on why they said it.
Why is there racist, sexist, and homophobic language present on our campus? What does it show about us as a community? These are harder questions to grapple with and aren’t usually addressed because there’s the assumption that there is no racism, sexism or homophobia on campus. It would be scary to admit that these are real issues on our campus, and it would also be harder to deal with. How do we address these issues? I hope that there can be a better way than to just cover them up.
The “we don’t say that at Bowdoin” strategy does not adequately ensure that the people who say something offensive won't do it again. Why? Because they didn't get it. The only part they understood is that they shouldn't say X word because it offends Y. Or they shouldn’t say it at Bowdoin. So what will happen once they're away from the person who is offended or away from Bowdoin? They will probably say X word again because they only learned it was unacceptable in one specific instance. They got no deeper reason not to do it and their thinking didn’t change.
What am I suggesting? If you feel the urge to use offensive language don't stop yourself simply because it's not what's done at Bowdoin, because another person will be hurt, or because it's the PC thing to do and the PC police might be around. Stop yourself because you understand what harmful structures your language reinforces. If you don’t understand it initially, don’t freak out or victimize yourself because someone is challenging the language you use.
My best friend (who happens to be a man) called me out the other day for using a phrase that reflected a very sexist attitude, and initially I felt defensive. I felt that as a woman and a gender and women’s studies major I shouldn’t need anybody to correct my language or point at problematic attitudes it reflected. What problematic language and attitudes? Hadn't I questioned it all and done the work? I realized there’s always more work to do and that I do need the people around me, especially my friends, to help me be better. And that’s OK. We can all learn and it’s important to keep an open and active mind. No one is born understanding everyone’s reality or every issue and you can’t be blamed for that. What you can get blamed for is for not listening and using your questioning mind. We are all part of an unequal world and in order to stop reproducing its problems we need to be in a state of constant reflection.

Say It Like It Is: Administration must take real action and stop making students do its job

The past two weeks have brought to light an issue on campus that was already present way before the “gangster party,” hosted by members of the sailing team. Here we go again. It seems like a repetitive song I want to skip, but seem to be forced to listen to over and over again. Last Saturday, I went to a meeting at Russwurm with President Rose and Dean Foster. Although President Rose’s presence surprised and pleased me, I couldn’t help but feel that all this had already been done before. They listened politely, took the list of demands from the African-American Society and said they would think about it. Thinking is nice and good, but at this point, considering the efforts that have already been made, it is a very weak answer and shows the College’s neglect and irresponsibility in dealing with race.
The administration’s response to the “gangster party” and race at Bowdoin continues to be problematic. Let’s begin with Dean Foster and President Rose’s emails, which have been the only official college responses so far. They both focus on people being offended and hurt and mention no concrete steps to address white privilege on this campus. In fact, they don’t explicitly acknowledge that racism and white privilege exist on our campus. Focusing on “feelings” makes it seem like the problem is simply people’s feelings, specifically the feelings of people of color, as mentioned in President Rose’s email. Thank you, Dean Foster and President Rose, for coming to protect people of colors’ feelings, minimizing the historical context and current ramifications of racist acts and failing to actually take any proactive steps. People’s anger, frustration and sadness about the party are very human reactions to the very real problem this college and country face, but they neglect to deal with the racism in practically every single corner of our communities and the rampant white privilege that constantly goes unchecked.
I wonder: have Dean Foster and President Rose not had time to think and talk about race since everything that was brought up last semester? Did they forget about the list of demands that was made public in an open letter to the community last February? Did President Rose not inform himself of the state our college was in before taking on his position? Meanwhile, I’ve had multiple people, both employees of the college and students, tell me to engage in dialogue. Yesterday I received an email from the McKeen Center that invited me to be part of a small group of students that will plan dialogue sessions on this campus. I love the workers in the Mckeen Center, but I’m not going to be a part of this “dialogue.” It is time for the College’s administration to act, not for the students of color to teach. I will not be the one who leads this conversation when my college as an institution refuses to do so. The presidents of the Asian Student Association have decided they will not participate in the creation of their annual fashion show, which is supposed to show the respected diversity that exists on campus and Af-Am will no longer host parties for prospective students until the College takes action and shows that this is a place for people of color. I fully support these choices.
The list of demands published last February continues to be online for anyone who wants to see it, and I don’t want to repeat what’s already been done by mentioning all of them, but I will expand on one very simple thing that the College could easily accomplish: mandating a training on race for all of its employees. Despite the fact that there have been some baby steps taken in this direction, a lack of skills on how to talk about race and general knowledge of how it functions in society is still a prevalent issue on our campus. Members of the administration urge students to engage in dialogue, but many of our professors don’t even have the skills to have a conversation about race and feel uncomfortable doing it. How then can we have dialogue? Different small trainings have come and gone in various parts of campus, but there has been no cohesion and consistency. There’s an obvious hole that needs to be filled.
What we’re missing on this campus is the willingness of the administration to deal with race, not more programing or discussions on race led by students of color. Saying we’ll have a conversation, thinking about it or sending an email, is just not enough. As a bare minimum all the employees at this college should have a training, which can be used as a foundation for more changes that need to be done. This would at least allow students of color and white allies to direct our energy on being students at Bowdoin and not doing a job that the administration is supposed to do.

Say It Like It Is

Build on the teach-in to move forward together

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

October 1, 2015

The teach-in this Thursday was a historic event at our college. As students who are only at Bowdoin for four years, it may be difficult to understand its importance, but ask anyone who’s been here for a while: how often do these events happen? One of my professors said it was as rare as the lunar eclipse, which occurred last week and won’t happen again for more than 15 years. As I talked with different people around me and went to various events yesterday, I began to understand why the teach-in was so important and the meaning it has at the College and beyond.

Before the teach-in took place, I worried that Bowdoin was a place that was too apathetic and that this event might not be successful, but those concerns disappeared as soon as I went to speak to some volunteers and was informed that close to 300 students showed up to an 8:30 a.m. open class on public health and environmental inequalities. This showed a type of willingness to engage with difficult issues of inequality on a large scale that I had never seen before at Bowdoin.

Something I often hear students complain about is that when there’s an event about social justice or race, the same people always show up and there’s no real campus-wide dialogue. This time it was different. As a student organizer of the teach-in, I’ve worked with professors and students who I’d never met before and who made me think about issues I’d never considered. The teach-in was a ten month process that in itself created a new mentality on campus and challenged the Bowdoin community’s way of thinking. This is important because as students in a liberal arts college we are supposed to make connections and learn that our interests are interdisciplinary, but it goes beyond that.

Last summer I went back home to Ecuador and because of my research, I was able to spend a lot of time with the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). The CONAIE constantly tried to make Ecuadorians realize that the cause of indigenous people wasn’t just the cause of indigenous people, but the cause of all people. They were able to articulate the intersectionality of their oppression as indigenous people, as poor people, and as people who live in an environment that is exploited by a capitalist system. Their success depended on this – on their ability to blend struggles and walk together with others. They created alliances with leftist organizations and environmentalists, which gave them greater strength and made more people aware of their struggle. The challenge with this, however, will always be to not marginalize any voice or issue while creating a unified force.

In many senses what CONAIE constantly tries to do is what we’re trying to do as well: to understand and articulate our different struggles in order to create a unified force that will make social change. As agents of change, we need to understand people’s struggles and their connection to the issues that we find more pressing. We shouldn’t want to fight alone and we shouldn’t be naïve enough to believe that we can.

One of my favorite panels during the teach-in dealt with environmental racism, a process by which environmental policies create disadvantaged and advantaged racial groups. This panel highlighted the importance of being able to articulate and connect issues that we usually compartmentalize. It taught me that black people in the U.S. are more likely than whites to live in dangerous and polluted environments, suffer from diseases that come from living in those polluted areas, and work in hazardous jobs. What would happen if we chose to ignore the environment or race in this situation?

As people fighting to end all oppression and save our earth we can no longer choose to ignore race or environmental destruction. In order for us not only to survive, but to create a world worth surviving for, we must understand that we are not individual units functioning in isolation.

Although the teach-in took place yesterday, it has not ended. There will be many events to continue the dialogue on race, social justice and climate change, like the Moving Forward meeting today at 12:30 p.m. in Daggett Lounge. But we won’t just talk. We will unite to move forward and create collective actions that will effect change. As human beings, we have a responsibility to each other and to this earth. Issues of social justice and climate change can often feel overwhelming to the point where we become paralyzed, but in order to make change, we need to realize the strength that we have and take action together.

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