The other day in my culture-focused class, we observed this video on sexual harassment in the streets of NYC. It was clear what the intended takeaway from seeing this was supposed to be that day, yet someone drew a different conclusion.
When we were asked to comment, one student prefaced his statement by saying that he “didn’t want to offend anyone” by what he was about to say. “Did you notice that every guy that followed her was a person of color?” The girl sitting next to me voiced her anger by this and walked out, and the remaining two minutes of class were spent with students telling him that what he said was rude and wrong. Now, there is no denying that what he seemed to be implying was offensive, yet the class’s response to this was that he should’ve never said it in the first place. Thinking back on the situation, I don’t think that’s the most appropriate solution.
The nature of the class is to provide an environment that is open-minded so that we can talk about tough subjects such as racism, sexism, and the overall unfair nature of the world we live in. Rather than shutting down a comment such as that, it would be more productive to start a conversation around that viewpoint, even if it was a tangent (the video was self-explanatory, so straying away wouldn’t have been an issue). The MTV documentary “White People” comes to mind. Even with all of its criticism, it was on the right track by establishing an environment where ignorance could be heard and hopefully changed with the presentation of factual evidence.
Yes, ignorance nowadays seems like a dangerous word to use due to its widely-accepted connotation as an insult. In truth, ignorance in these situations is not something to be ashamed of. Ignorance is a human condition we all suffer from on a day-to-day basis. Each individual has a unique perspective of the world, and even I have fallen victim to forgetting that. So in these cases, where ignorance is present in one’s comments, it’s easy to just say, “that’s wrong. Don’t do that ever again.” The problem with that is that an understanding as to why it was wrong is never pursued. Ignorance does not change unless it is rooted out and challenged with argumentation.
Starting a conversation is key in changing a person’s point of view. With an offensive statement, rather than shoo it away as something absolutely wrong, trying to understand who that person is and why they might have said that is the road to making sure not only that it doesn’t happen again, but also that a change in mindset happens. So as this class continues on this semester, I hope that instances like this do happen so that we can continue to challenge those perceptions and, in the end, help continue the conversation to affect change all over the world.
