September 18, 2015 - 14:58
Just a few months ago, I found myself trying to choose a college to attend in the coming fall -- similar to most high school seniors across America. As I compared academics and extracurriculars and student:teacher ratios and graduation rates, I tried reaching out to alumni of my high school who had gone to the various colleges I had narrowed down to. Surprisingly, no one from my high school had chosen Bryn Mawr College for several years. Very few students had heard of Bryn Mawr at all. After much probing, I finally reached my friend’s adult sister, who had graduated from Bryn Mawr college over a decade ago.
“So what was your experience like?” I recall asking her excitedly.
While she said the intellectual culture and academic rigor of Bryn Mawr were great, she also mentioned that there was a deeply ingrained racism within the administration and general student body. I was shocked to hear this, This was completely out of my expectations of what college might be like, and I didn’t know what to do with this new information.
So I ignored it, assuming this graduate must have had her own personal issues with Bryn Mawr College, and that the very notion of an institution having an ingrained racism within its leadership was preposterous. I continued the college process, came down to a few schools, and finally committed to Bryn Mawr.
The college seemed tolerant enough. The student body was relatively diverse, each dorm hall had its own Community Diversity Assistant, and the college seemed to be going to great lengths in attempts to make all kinds of people feel welcome. I did not see any racism on the surface.
In Anne Dalke’s draft chapter, “Slipping into Something More (Un)Comfortable: Untangling Identity, Unsetting Community,” the idea of “slippage” is introduced. “Slippage” describes the phenomena of unconsciously and unintentionally reverting to a prejudiced state that one may or may not have known existed. I believe that slippage can be a good growing experience, but this is only possible when one is willing to acknowledge and recognize that he or she is carrying prejudiced views, and is willing to change them.
In Dalke’s chapter, Dalke chronicles the confederate flag controversy that occurred last year. Two students hung the confederate flag in their dorm and taped down a Mason-Dixon line in front of their door. Other students asked them to remove these items, but they refused -- apparently the flags represented “southern pride” to them. Rather than introducing her student Nia as “one of the students who hung the Confederate flag,” Dalke first delves into Nia’s previous written works and thoughts in Critical Feminist Studies. This allows the reader to see her as a person instead of simply a Confederate flag-supporter. I definitely can agree with Nia’s point about Bryn Mawr’s cultural norms: white, queer, upper middle class, atheist, liberal, and more. She goes on further to say, “If one does not conform to these norms, they are looked down upon, there exists societal pressure to conform to the cultural identity of Bryn Mawr.” I do feel that this is problematic, and students ought to feel comfortable with any of their ideals and values.
But to value and honor a symbol of violence, hatred, and marginalization of another minority group — which is exactly what the Confederate flag signifies for many African and Southern citizens — is wrong. This isn’t a matter of freedom of speech or conformity, because something like the Confederate flag affects surrounding situations, causes pain in others, and stirs up potential outbreaks. Hanging the Confederate flag is a cruel move. Earlier, Nia said herself, “Bryn Mawr is above all else a sisterhood, a home, a community, and we must foster this sense of togetherness, by coming together and not isolating and discriminating against the variety of cultural identities which exist on our campus.” Yet hanging the Confederate flag directly contradicts this goal, so Nia’s credibility is lost on me.
For Nia and her roommate to intentionally hang the confederate flag while they knew it symbolized pain, hate, torture, violence, and oppression demonstrates that this was not slippage. Slippage needs to be unintentional, which is the opposite of Nia and her roommate. They were proud of their flag and tape, and meant to make a statement. “Good slippage” might have occurred if Nia and her roommate listened to the other students who told them that the flag made them uncomfortable, realized they were wrong, and respectfully took it down. But this didn’t happen. The Mason-Dixon line was even worse. Even if the confederate flag could somehow be twisted to signify Southern pride, the Mason-Dixon line was directly related to slavery. This tape was put down with the intention of isolating themselves from the rest of campus. Nia and her roommate may have experienced slippage because they seemed to think their actions were not wrong -- but they most likely did not experience slippage because their actions were absolutely intentional and planned.
Pusey and Mercado's history of Bryn Mawr through the “Black at Bryn Mawr” tour demonstrated that our college has a social climate that’s not engineered to support everyone. We have a long way to go. Our tour guide mentioned that even now, the entire faculty only has four tenured black professors. We need to emphasize Enid Cook’s struggle. We need to expand Black at Bryn Mawr to include the voices of black people. We need to start feeling uncomfortable.
The Black at Bryn Mawr tour is excellent for bringing these historically racist issues to light. I’m glad that Bryn Mawr is trying to be honest and not hide its past. While many parts of the tour were shocking and difficult to hear, it is necessary for this information to be open and public in order for us to move past it and grow as a community. Black at Bryn Mawr should be used to pull out all slippages. We all need to be confronted by ourselves and others about the prejudices we might be holding deep within us. Only by welcoming discomfort can we become better, stronger, and more tolerant as both individuals and communities.