I just finished “Thick” by Tressie McMillan Cotton, and here’s one of the big lessons that’s resonating:
I was recently at a race & equity training for my school, and the facilitator asked us about the contacts in our phone address book. Who are we friends with? Do our friends look like us, or do they look different? Do they come from/live in the same places as us, or different?
There is such a thing as “elite media-” a hierarchy of top tier publications that are influencing public opinion and media punditry (someone who knows a lot about a topic, and who is frequently asked to speak on it-think about who these people are that you follow? And how they could be influencing you) Those are the publications that are influencing the dominant discourse we see and hear in the media.
So what happens when we don’t incorporate people of color into the hierarchy?
“When the people we read, even if we only read them to hate them, do not engage black women as thinkers or subjects, we do not feel compelled by our dominant culture to do so either.” (Cotton)
We are invalidating the experiences of anyone who doesn’t fit into the hierarchy by our medias standards. We are limiting the story we hear. We are not giving ourselves learning opportunities to expand and broaden horizons, and our world view remains small. We perpetuate cycles of oppression.
Imagine how you could broaden your knowledge, world view, knowledge by adding POC, LGBTQ, indigenous cultures & organizations, etc…
Here’s your ‘stay woke’ homework:
Scroll through the list of people you are following, and reflect on the following questions:
- What is the race/gender/sexuality of most of the people I follow?
- Am I following people who look like me? How many?
- Am I following people who look different than me? How many?