This past Wednesday was the first-ever Community Day of Learning at Bryn Mawr College. As none of the other Banter Bloggers have opted to share their thoughts and feelings on the event, I choose to do so in the interests of my (tiny) readership.

The Community Day of Learning was organized in response to the Mawrter-led student protests against the hanging of the Confederate flag and the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner this past Fall. It was a fairly speedily crafted event, thus. Classes were canceled so that faculty, staff, and students might be free to participate in the different workshops and events taking place from 10-2PM. It was to be a cross-population discussion and interaction. (If you want a more in-the-moment reflection, you may check out my Twitter–link in the sidebar).

I was quite wary of the event at the start. I wasn’t certain of their aims. It didn’t help that my sister, who attends Calvin College, has to undergo and detests what Calvin calls Unlearn Week as she feels it a great pretense to caring about diversity. I didn’t want Bryn Mawr to pretend to me; I didn’t want to be in a situation where diversity became a cudgel; I didn’t…know what to feel or think and settled on caution.

My beauteous collage made in the Challenges to the Black/White Binary workshop – intended to depict my personal racial understanding.

It all transpired vastly better than my worst fears but not as wonderful as my loftiest imaginings (well, what does anyway?) I woke up bright and early to participate in as many events as possible. As it was, I already had to miss a workshop because my voice lesson was in direct conflict with the events scheduled in that time slot. I did manage to participate in the Challenges to the Black/White Binary workshop, which was led by two recent BMC alumni. Though I understand what the terminology (Black/White binary) means and have heard it referenced rather frequently, I never truly thought about how the binary’s narrow definition of race (you’re either white or black!) might affect those who truly feel they are neither or both. I also feel the binary is a blockade even for those who DO identify as black–such as myself. I often find more in common with those outside my “race” than I do with those “within” it. 

As part of the Day of Learning, the Bryn Mawr administration hired an interactive theater group called Theater Delta to host two performances. The session I attended began with a short sketch of three students (a Latina, a “white” girl, and a “black” girl) who were working on a presentation for Ethics class on Affirmative Action. Various kinds of racial insensitivities ensued. We, the audience, were then called upon to ask the characters questions about their actions and discuss the real world implications. We thought about how to respond to micro-aggressions, whether the minority should be called upon to be a teacher of diversity, and how we treat and view within-group stereotype-enacting versus out-group stereotype-enacting. There was an intersection of the discussion of the Binary here. There seemed a great tendency to forget that “minorities” can inflict micro-aggressions against each other–which was an interesting (frequent) omission.

I am happy that BMC made the effort to go through with such a day. We may indeed be the first college to suspend most activities for a discussion like that–but that’s not the point. The point is that the bureaucracy didn’t prevent us from getting together and talking, that the administration listened  and understood enough to see this was important. Yes, I heard some complainers and I heard some enthusiasts, but that is my final thought. We dared to do and maybe err.

“The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no has ever been before.”

~ Albert Einstein

(Quote taken my collage)