The Voices of Discovery that I am enrolled in is the Micro-aggression
session. While I am totally a more introverted and shy person on average, I
usually have no problem speaking my mind when I have something to say. However,
at this last session of Voice of Discovery, I found myself rather
uncomfortable.
For anyone that doesn’t know what a micro-aggression is, it
is essentially any unintentional action that causes another to feel upset or
hurt. Now, in this last session we were talking about mascots that represent
Native Americans, and I happened to find myself on the opposite side of
everyone else except for one other person, but even we had different reasons
for being on the same side. While the sessions are supposed to be a safe space,
I found myself hiding in my shell and at one point remaining totally silent
because I was trying to formulate my thoughts into one cohesive statement that I
could say quickly and move on from, which I eventually did by talking fast with
a flushed face and looking at the ground.
I had found myself one of two people in our entire group who
had a problem with mascots being representations of Native Americans. Most of
the people on the other side of the spectrum sited that some Native Americans
found the use of their skin color as a point of pride, and I can obviously see
that. However, my stance was that even if half the of a certain group finds it inoffensive,
the other half does, and is it really worth insulting half a body of people
over a simple mascot.
In some cases people did not realize why Native Americans
would be offended in the first place, and I tried to defend my stance in my
wobbly and quiet speech saying that mascots are often manipulated either
through Photoshop or cartoons. What can start off with a school rivalry and
easily be turned with a few mouse clicks into an incredibly racist picture,
which most likely would offend the people who found the mascots use as a form
of pride. This week was easily the most uncomfortable I felt within the program
because I could almost feel people judging me or not understanding my arguments.
Either way, I still stand by my belief that mascots representing a minority
group of people can be extremely offensive.
Thanks for sharing this experience, Josie. That is a difficult place to find yourself in a discussion. I think one of the challenges of dialogues around controversial or sensitive issues is that emotions often become heightened and we feel as if our individual worth is on the line. It is incredibly challenging to stand up for a perspective against a larger majority of people who don't see things the same way that you do. I hope that at the end of the discussion some greater degree of understanding or empathy was achieved on both sides.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking from the perspective of our course and its topics about how popular culture participates in and perpetuates certain modes of representation, I think it's important to think about the power differentials and aspects of privilege that play into certain patterns of representation (whether we are discussing mascots or blackface traditions). I think that issue can get missed or sidelined in conversations about whether certain forms of representation are "good" or "bad."