OPINION: It is more than just a day for dialogue

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Disclaimer: You can choose to opt-out from reading this article, but I will not give you the choice to silence me. I am speaking fearlessly to the human behind the paper, the voice beyond the ink, the soul beneath the privilege, and the [her]story concealed in the colloquialism of language(s). I am speaking to you where miracle meets possibility, drive meets patience, reflection meets action and revolution meets today.

DePauw is embedded within a larger epochal shift and is responsible to acknowledge historically underrepresented students and work to dismantle systems of privilege. DePauw has been under constant tension to support initiatives in providing more inclusive spaces on campus while simultaneously sponsoring and/or allowing initiatives that historically marginalize particular groups of students to exist. DePauw Dialogue reveals the existence of a (not-so-) silent majority, but also demonstrates how “lit” (a term used to describe a phenomenon) our student activist/ally-in-training community is.

The DePauw Dialogue was a “damage-control” response from decades of effort, from both students and faculty/staff, to reclaim and legitimize people's experiences of marginalization on DePauw’s campus, while raising awareness to the larger DePauw (and social media) community.

Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington (who was also "lit") argued that, in order to move into discussions of content, “given our context, we must be willing to do race.” As part of the subcommittee, I intended to reach a new audience to discuss intersectionality in hopes of exploring our contextual relationship to “power, privilege and the quiet cousin, entitlement," according to Washington. It was an opportunity to reflect on our implicit and explicit positionality. Our predecessors fought for structural change for us to be able to have this spac; now, it is up to our generation to reflect on our past (context), engage across difference and understand how to use this space for transforming content. Washington reminded us that the DePauw Dialogue was intended for interpersonal conversations: the importance of honesty to create the space for deeper levels of authentic conversations. However, our institution cannot transgress institutionalized -isms unless our social justice is rooted in structural change.

There will come a time when the majority student body will not only be familiar with, but embrace, the sazón in LGBTQ, womxnist, indigenous, #blacklivesmatter, decolonization, etc., testimonios. I am still learning how to express the fluidity of my identities and what it means. I am not in a perfect place, though (re)learning is where honesty meets transcendence. It requires much patience (though more frequently, I run out) and self-care - more so for those who engage with their identities wherever they go. DePauw Dialogue was one event out of many others throughout a four year college experience to have honest conversations. This is an invitation. This is a call for true solidarity. 

 

Chavez is a senior education studies major from Chicago, Illinois.