Let's Talk About Race
As part of the Exeter community, we are all so lucky to have the opportunity to be here. We are constantly able to learn, not just from teachers and textbooks, but also from each other. That is why it is so imperative that we acknowledge that within our community, there can still be people who are more privileged than others. Last Tuesday, fellow Exonians came together to share their Exeter experiences during Assembly. The one recurring theme was how their race plays an important role in their lives. From having your ethnicity questioned to being attacked with racial slurs on the streets of Exeter to having your identity scrutinized, there are issues some of us face that others simply don’t.
Race is one of the hardest conversations to have with friends, family, strangers, but it's often the difficult conversations that are the most important and turn out to be the most rewarding.
Race is an issue that many are uncomfortable with talking about. It often sparks controversy because we recognize the social implications of being called a racist. Many people are reluctant to talk about it as it is considered an “intense” or even taboo subject. One thing is undebatable though: There is a problem with race in this country. In America, people of color have been and continue to be subjected to oppression, so much so that it could be considered tradition. From the earliest unspeakable atrocities committed against Native Americans, to slavery, to the Chinese Exclusion Act, to modern day police brutality and anti-immigrant sentiment, can we really say that our fight for civil rights is over?
Interestingly, people have come up with their own way to tackle this problem: simply not speaking about it. They believe that through not talking about race and proclaiming that they “don’t see color,” the issues pertaining to racism (which is itself a plague) will immediately go away. As a person of color, my race is important to me—it is a part of my identity, something that makes me uniquely me along with my sexual orientation and my interests. To strip me of my race is to deny that I am who I am. I don’t want people to be blind to that part of me, but instead accept it and define their opinion of me by my merits and faults.
Not seeing someone’s race also implies that we are dismissing the genuine struggles that they face because of their race. People are still persecuted every single day due to the color of their skin—for example, the stop-and-frisk policy and discrimination in housing.
The fact that some people can choose not to talk about race stems from a place of privilege. Although it’s easier to revert immediately back to more comfortable topics of school and social gossip, I encourage us to not stop talking about race. For people of color, race is often a thing that they have to battle: who they are versus other people’s preconceived stereotypes of them due to that very aspect of themselves. It can transform into something you love and hate at the same time. Race isn’t something you can shed at the door. It changes your perspective of the world and its perspective of you, coloring a reality that people have to live through every single day of their lives. For white people, there is a responsibility to advocate for every human’s right to live without fear and the threat of persecution.
Someone once said that instead of being a melting pot, America should be a salad bowl. Everything exists together in harmony, but each piece retains its own individual texture and taste. It is our different cultures coming together that makes America worth celebrating, and to erase them all would be a shame.
By not being afraid to initiate conversations regarding race, through asking thoughtful questions, we can help make Exeter a more inclusive community.