My boss at a summer camp I worked at made this analogy: taking care of your teeth is something you have to do every day. You can’t take a break from brushing your teeth every day, just like you can’t take a break from recognizing the systematic racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, etc. that exists around you. The food we eat makes our teeth dirty every day, and the world we live in institutionalizes oppression every day.
Just like how you brush your teeth every day, you should be recognizing the way your life is affected by privilege every day. You should recognize the moments that the color of your skin changes the way you move around the world — how your assigned gender or gender presentation changes the way you interact with others. You take a minute to read an article or think piece about privilege or a current issue that affects marginalized folks. I’m not saying you need to be doing this every second of every day, but spend at least ten minutes a day thinking about this.
Sometimes you have to go to the dentist. This is maybe the weakest link in my analogy because the dentist is the worst. But what I mean by this is that every so often you have to do something bigger to take care of your teeth. Do something that is outside of your comfort zone. Go out and participate in a protest. Go to a workshop that is specifically designed to help you educate yourself on issues that matter.
You tell your friends when something is in their teeth. (Or at least hopefully you do.) If someone says you have something in your teeth the reaction is usually “shit that was embarrassing,” but afterwards being thankful that you weren’t walking around with spinach in your mouth all day. I am a believer that you should have a similar reaction when someone calls you out for saying something homophobic, racist, sexist etc., especially if you are someone who takes care of your teeth every day. The air we breathe is full of oppressive ideologies. It makes sense that sometimes we internalize these and say them back to our friends or others. What’s not okay is letting this go without correction.
This is specifically a call out for other white folks on campus. It’s very easy to let your friends say something racist because white people get so defensive when someone calls them racist. Letting your other white friends get away with saying something you know to be racist is not benefiting anyone; it only lets you stay in your comfort zone for a moment. Don’t let it be the job of POC on this campus to call out your friend.
If this seems like work, that’s because it is. But you put work into things like this every day, just like brushing your teeth.
Morgan Day, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at MDay19@wooster.edu.