Emerson College has long been touted as the most diversity-friendly school, including achieving #1 LGBTQ+ Friendly School, as reported by the Princeton Review for several years now.
Photo courtesy of www.lgbtqnation.com
As a sophomore at Emerson College, I believe that Emerson deserves this accolade, if the parameters of the award include white and/or not straight.
Sure, we are advertised as being the most diversity-friendly and one of the most open minded schools. Yet there are several moments when this ranking seems undeserved because there are many students who don't feel welcome to be who they are on campus whether it's embracing their ethnicity, their history, their sexual identification; themselves as a whole person equal to everyone else.
Just last year, the protest titled #IAmEmerson? was organized in light of the day of giving and generosity to the community that had been proposed by President Lee Pelton and the administration, with the title "I am Emerson". Students marched around campus gathering more and more supporters before walking into the last faculty meeting of the year to make their stories and demands heard. The protest was organized because many students felt they were not being respected for who they were, were not being recognized for their culture in an appropriate respectful way, and not seeing themselves represented in the academics of the college. These students also outlined several incidences where they had felt unsafe and discriminated against by other students and faculty. The protest led to an entire movement, demanding cultural competency classes for faculty and students. It also called for an overall better respect on campus for diversity and recognition of students coming from diverse backgrounds with competent academic materials, teaching, and treatment.
There are many other complaints around campus of intersectionality being ignored, such as those who sexually identify differently and also are from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, having acts of discrimination committed against them as well.
Because someone is not straight, that does not mean everyone who is not straight is in one giant club of support and unity. For the purpose of laying this out in a general overview, people of color who identify differently from the gender binary are more likely to be discriminated against, because they are fighting against social norms that have to be expected of them. They are then discriminated against for being themselves. There have been horrendous murders this year of those who identify differently from the gender binary and who are not white, but those are not reported. Those who identify as LGBTQ+ and are white can and still will discriminate against those of a different race or ethnicity. If you need a quick bit of evidence, look no further than the film Stonewall. The film uses a white, gay protagonist as the "hero" while in reality many of those leading the movement of Stonewall were not white and the history for the purpose of the film was severely manipulated.
Photo courtesy of ww.wn.com
The same goes for feminism. There is such a thing as white feminism, which can exclude the plight millions of women of color and their experience. As a woman, one can already be subjected to a level of discrimination, but as woman of color it is even harder to achieve success because of the levels of discrimination occurring. Too many times I have heard of women on projects at this school being dismissed for their talent and treated terribly because they are women. It happens here at Emerson College much too often to count.
Photo courtesy of everydayfeminism.com
There are an exorbitant amount issues that don't see the light of day at Emerson because it is too busy being whitewashed and polished to look like the picture perfect, open minded, small yet urban school that it appears to be.
The student body as a whole is not guilty for the entirety of these misconceptions, but we are guilty of its advertisement and its continuation. Students must stand and recognize these faults, admit these occurrences, and move to make the changes. If we do this, we can be truly deserving of the awards and exclamations that so many collegiate publications give to us. #IamEmerson? already made amazing strides in forcing students and faculty to confront the issues and misconceptions. That is not to say Emerson College lacks in talent, sensitivity, amazing people, and incredible educational benefits- however it is to say that there are definite issues we cannot ignore. We can be accountable to our peers and friends. We can be the students Emerson says we are.
