>When we talked about privilege with this group
and we asked the students to identify the kinds of privileges they had
or that they saw other people experiencing, I thought it was really powerful.
The young woman who talked about that her history was the elective and other students had the ability
to have their history as part of the curriculum.
The male student who didn't think he had privilege because he was African-American
but yet, when I asked him about his privilege as a male
and he said, "Oh," and he got back to it later in the conversation, talking about that privilege.
The student who realized that, in this situation, I was uncomfortable
and I was playing basketball with friends, and yet, I could walk away from that situation because I
wasn't comfortable because most of the other people were of a different race than me.
>It's probably easy for me, as a young black woman, to not see myself as privileged.
But in a lot of ways: I grew up in the suburbs, I went to a private school.
If you think about it, you probably have some sort of
privilege just by virtue of you being in college that others don't.
And so, it's always important to consider yourself on the macro level as opposed to just the micro level.
>I feel like I have to defend myself, sometimes, when I do say that I'm from the city
because a lot of people- they'll follow up with questions like:
Did you feel safe?
Were you comfortable with the people in your classes?
And I have to say that of course I was, because otherwise, they're going to make their own assumptions
and they're going to assume what they what they already believed about the city
and that they believe it's dangerous or not a good place.
So I feel like I have to defend it.
I feel like it's unfair in a way.
>My white male friend was raised in a community of predominantly black people.
And so, when I go to play basketball with him, in what is a predominantly black community on that court
he speaks the language, he speaks in a way that I'm not used to interacting with.
And, I see what it's like to be surrounded by something in which I am the odd one out.,
in which i am isolated and it's not comfortable for me.
And I find myself struggling to decide: how do I react?
Do I try to quote "speak the language"? Do I try to fit in?
Or will that be seen as appropriation or being something that I'm not?
Or, so if I don't do that, is my speaking the way I'm used to, interacting in the way I'm used to...
Only highlight the differences between the two communities that I'm trying to bridge?
At the end of the day, despite all this uncomfortableness, this isolation,
I know that myself, as a white male, can still step out of that.
I don't have to experience that discomfort all the time and that in and of itself is a privilege
that not everyone has the opportunity to have.
>How do we engage others in conversations who don't see the value in having these conversations?
Some of the more difficult conversations that you can have are confronting people who
don't have the same language around race and privilege.
>I think that having conversations about race and privilege is definitely more of an opportunity to
bridge us together than taking us apart, because we're acknowledging
how we're feeling in situations, our experiences.
and just talking about those allows us to self-reflect, and step into the shoes of somebody else,
and to really take some time to actively listen to the experiences of others
whether they are experiencing privilege or experiencing oppression
really taking that time and having those difficult conversations even when you feel uncomfortable
and don't know what to say, to simply acknowledge that that is somebody else's experience
is a very powerful moment in the that type of dialogue.
>We know that the more that we have conversations around difference...
And that we interact with people that are different than us, that it will decrease prejudice.
The studies have shown, you want to decrease prejudice
interact more with people who are different than you.
>We are all individuals who have some privileges and don't have others.
There is rarely a case in which someone has all of them or none of them.
We all need to take a step back and find where our privileges are,
and where that gives us our responsibility,
and where our privileges aren't and what needs to be done to address that situation.
Everyone belongs and is relevant in that circle
purely because of the combination of privileges they do not have.
>I think the responsibilities that we have, having privilege, is that
we have to continue these conversations. We have to go into classrooms and talk about it.
We have to talk about it in everyday situations because race does not stay in one little bubble.
It affects every aspect of life.
>We have a unique opportunity on a college campus to change the world.
I really believe that. It's why we do this work, that we can begin these conversations
we are with students who are saying: "I want to learn."
If you look at this group, we had mostly sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are in the room
and ready to engage with this, and they talked about what happens when they
go home, and the people who haven't left home and how those conversations are different.
Something about this environment has already peaked their interest
and helped them see that this was important for them
to start to learn about this, and that they wanted to try to tease out what the issues were
and what it meant to them and what their responsibilities were around these issues.
>People are having similar questions and experiences that I am right now
and hearing those who are experiencing oppression in relation to
race and privilege- how they want to speak about this these conversations
and hearing that other college students really want to have these conversations
is something that's very inspiring to me. So, just hearing how people haven't
begun these conversations has helped me understand how to do that in the future.
>Some of the responsibilities that I have, or anyone has
when they are in a position of privilege is to help to bridge that gap.
And that means empowering those who may feel that they are isolated in a situation
giving silent voices opportunity to speak
knowing when your voice should should be a sound or to allow that to happen.
>The privilege that they identified, that they connected with, was just really
powerful to hear them put those pieces into place.
It was an amazing discussion.
These students have something going on, and the way they teach us and learn from us...
It's an amazing experience.