Spring is here, which means graduation is just around the corner. I can't speak for every person who's gone through college, but I am relieved beyond belief. With just one quarter standing between me and freedom, I'm ready to coast through the next quarter with just enough effort to keep my head above water.
Graduating also means freedom from oppression in classroom. You'd think that being on a social justice-oriented campus would mean safe spaces were more readily available, right? Wrong!
Yes, you'll find a professor or two who just gets it, and the other times you won't. Same thing can be said for your classmates. Honestly, I should be given an award for how much self-control I exercised to resist rolling my eyes into the sun. I once heard a guy say something along the lines of, "As a white male, I feel bad about representation in the film industry. I understand it's important to have more representation for women, but what can I do?" Sit down and shut up is what you can do.
The kicker is when people talk about issues as if people who had experienced them aren't in the room. I've sat through badly handled discussions of divorce and thought to myself, I wonder how many of these students know what it's like to grow up as a kid of separated parents and understand each situation is different?
I've sat through discussions about race conducted by white people. I heard them talk about what solutions can be made in "third world countries" (don't even get me started on that term) while we sat there in an American classroom ignoring the issues in our own country. I've heard people praise the United States for being an advanced superpower while other places in the world were "primitive" and "behind the times."
A conversation on a film featuring two women in a relationship referred to it as "lesbianism," and I felt brave enough to raise my hand and say that just because two women are in a relationship doesn't mean they're both lesbians. One could be bisexual/pansexual for all we know. Of course, we knew it is fiction but the point lies on the freedom to interpret representation in the most inclusive way possible. The use of labels is complex, relieving, and personal, so those conversations should never be easily dismissed. Unfortunately, my comment was regarded for a second then immediately forgotten (a common feeling when you're not a white heterosexual person).
So, yes, I learned a lot about the importance of words, the meaning of actions, and how to navigate discussions on prejudice. It's a constant learning process that will extend past my time at college, but it's also something I've experienced while growing up -- I just didn't know the words and terms for it. I learned more about these topics outside of the classroom, but felt it reinforced within it.
Of course, these experiences will undoubtedly be repeated even after graduation in different settings and with different people. The main difference is I won't be expecting to be disappointed from the get-go.
