Prelude by Dr. Vida Samuel, PhD. LiveGirl Board Member
and Professor at University of Connecticut, Stamford
The essential questions most people ask is what do I need to participate in an open and honest conversation about race? With whom do I have this conversation? And how important is my voice in a conversation about racism without leading to feelings of anger, guilt, discomfort, sadness, and at times disrespect?
Today, we hope you will find courage to participate in this conversation and acknowledge our collective responsibility for the world in which we live. Every day, we think of ways to save our world and environment with sustainable approaches to our consumption habits, ensuring for example, groups of women no longer experience period poverty and the homeless population are provided shelter. That world is rooted in our communities, our friend networks and our families. To make racism separate from these issues only lets us maintain an illusion that taking care of one thing ensures everything else is resolved. Giving to the homeless or working at a shelter are valuable motives toward a just world but does not settle the issue of racial oppression, implicit bias or microaggression. Having a white friend does not mean privilege is conferred upon a person of color. Similarly having a friend of color does not make one a non-racist. People of color still must behave and dress in prescribed ways that do not reproduce us in the negative ways often imposed upon all people of color. After 17 year old Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, I concluded that a hoodie on a Black body has a different meaning for a White body. A Black body is circumscribed as suspicious while a White body is interpreted as a hipster. Clothing, I recognized became another costume in performing whiteness and blackness. Ultimately, wearing a hoodie is associated with a certain privilege for Whites and danger for Blacks.
We are two women of color having a conversation that might often be decoded as having it in an echo chamber. We are not talking about race because it is easier for us, we are engaged in this conversation because we feel qualified to provide you with the most accurate perspectives of our experiences and answers to your questions. It is important to preface this discussion by telling you we do not speak for all people of color because our experiences are unique for sure. A person of color in Germany, Israel, Scotland, Russia or the Caribbean might experience their racial identity in other ways but might be treated the same in the United States. My experience of being a transnational St. Lucian who is a naturalized US citizen is different from Cheyenne’s experiences as a born US citizen. My experiences at this stage of my life are also different from Cheyenne’s. I point out these distinctions to highlight the uniqueness of each person of color, not to emphasize differences as a tool of division. We can only tell you how we’re experiencing race at this moment in time in our brown and black bodies, at our distinct ages and in the context of origin. I will use the terms brown and Black bodies, non-Whites and people of color to deliberate on how a majority race impacts racial and ethnic others. We encourage you to share with us your fears, experiences, vulnerabilities and more importantly, your questions. A sustainable world depends on our ability to have this conversation often, reasonably and acknowledge, that even when we may not share similar narratives, our standing as human beings demands mutual respect as a human obligation. We must force ourselves to do equal amounts of the emotional work required for a more racially-just world.
