A
ll throughout elementary
and middle school, I was
taught the value of equality
was of utmost
importance.
My classmates
and
I
were
taught
that
we must “treat everyone the way
that we would like to be treated,”
the Dr. Seuss mantra “a person’s
a person, no matter how small”
and the prevalent belief that “we
are all one.” In my opinion, this
is good advice to give young kids.
Informing children that all people
deserve respect — no matter how
different they appear to be from
you — attempts to teach them not
to stereotype one another. But as I
matured into an adult, the morals
and values that I was taught didn’t
mature along with me, and these
“we are all one” morals often
remained in my mind, as the simple
and limited way they were taught
by my kindergarten teacher.
The horrific Orlando shootings
that occurred this past June
during Pride Month were followed
a few weeks later by the Twitter
hashtag
#HeterosexualPrideDay.
Created in an effort to celebrate
heterosexuality,
Heterosexual
Pride Day was disrespectful to
those who have been discriminated
against based on their sexual
orientation and was also incredibly
useless,
as
heterosexuality,
as
least in America, has never been
something one couldn’t be proud
of. In the same vein, movements
like All Lives Matter and Men’s
Rights Activism are all created out
of a false understanding of what
ostracism actually is. But, many
argue, “If we are ‘all one,’ then
why can’t I as a cis/abled/straight/
white/Christian/man celebrate my
identities?” Indeed, why is pride
in privileged identities so looked
down upon?
Those who decide to take pride
in privileged identities seem to
have a basic misunderstanding of
what pride is and why it exists.
Perhaps for someone from a
privileged identity, pride appears
to be exclusive and clique-y, a
movement meant to exclude others
who don’t share the said identity.
But this ignores how, for those
whose identities make them a
target, celebrating these identities
is, in itself, a rebellion. For those
who identify as LGBTQ, taking
part in the events during Pride
Month means finally being able to
celebrate an identity that has most
likely put them at risk of bullying,
harassment and even losing their
jobs or housing. The same goes
for taking part in pro-Black, pro-
Muslim, or any pro-movement of
a minimized identity. The reason
these holidays and movements exist
at all is in response to the prevalent
beliefs that seek to destroy them.
These holidays and movements
weren’t created to exclude anyone
else — they were created so that
these identities could continue to
exist.
Privilege is hard to confront,
I understand. As Americans, we
are all taught that success comes
to those who work hard and try
their best. So, if you live a life that
is relatively easy, it is comforting
to think that this is the result of
you or your ancestors’ hard work,
and that a painless lifestyle is your
reward. It’s hard to confront the
fact that everything you have, that
everything your family has, could
also be the result of luck as well as
a strong will and determination.
Sometimes it is hard for us to
confront our privilege because of
the struggles that we have faced
in our lifetimes — if someone has
grown up impoverished, it may
be hard for them to realize they
might have a type of privilege that,
nevertheless, makes life easier for
them than it would be for someone
else. I understand and I sympathize,
but we have to do better.
Many of us have been taught
that “a person’s a person, no matter
how small,” and “we are all the
same,” but this basic understanding
of humanity often offers us a
distorted view of how the world
actually works. If we are to assume
that “we are all the same,” it is
difficult for the privileged to accept
that someone may be experiencing
life in a different, harder way. It is,
perhaps, this lack of understanding
that may lead some to believe that, if
a few identities are allowed to have
their own history months or Pride
Month, they are also deserving
of this kind of treatment. Those
with privilege need to realize that
our identities — which we never
have to think or worry about — do
not need to be celebrated and do
not need to be honored. We need
to stop assuming that everyone’s
experience has been the same.
—Elena Hubbell can be reached
at elepearl@umich.edu.
4
Thursday, July 7, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION
LARA MOEHLMAN
EDITOR IN CHIEF
JEREMY KAPLAN
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
BRADLEY WHIPPLE
MANAGING EDITOR
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
Moving beyond “we are one”
ELENA
HUBBELL
INTERESTED IN CAMPUS ISSUES?
Every Tuesday at 7 pm, the Daily’s opinion staff meets to discuss both University and national affairs and write
editorials. E-mail opinioneditors@michigandaily.com to join in the conversation.
MADELINE
NOWICKI
Learning from Twitter
F
eminism
is
a
complex
issue that fundamentally
deals with dynamics and
relationships
between
women,
men,
society,
race,
class, politics,
sexual orientation, gender identity,
ability and a whole host of other
large, abstract ideas. Feminism
is far from new, but since around
2014, “culture (has) become a
feminist issue.” That was the year
of Beyoncé’s iconic 2014 Video
Music Awards performance. The
Internet,
especially
Twitter,
exploded
with
activity
and
excitement following Queen Bey’s
display of empowerment.
Apart
from
Beyoncé’s
performance,
we’ve
seen
UN
Women’s
2014
social
media
campaign
#HeForShe,
which
encouraged men to take up the
issue of gender parity and state
their position as allies for women.
We saw #YesAllWomen arise
in 2014 to uncover the issues of
daily
oppression.
We’ve
seen
#EqualPayDay in 2016 discuss
the gendered wage gap. We saw
#CarryThatWeight
arise
in
2014 in response to the epidemic
of mishandled campus sexual
assaults. We’ve seen the disgusted
response to the abysmally lax June
sentencing of a violent rapist who
attended Stanford.
Everyone
on
Twitter
gets
140
characters
to
declare
whatever they want, virtually
uncensored. All you need to
participate is Internet access.
The issues discussed on Twitter,
however,
often
reflect
those
important to privileged feminists.
Problems
faced
by
educated,
middle- or upper-class, straight,
white women often gain more
attention
than
the
issues
of
less wealthy women, women of
color, transgender women, non-
heterosexual women, etc. The
mainstream dialogue on Twitter,
consolidated in its trending topics,
doesn’t always necessarily embody
intersectionality,
especially
the issues of women who share
membership in other minority or
oppressed groups.
This is especially concerning
because
Twitter
trends
are
designed at their core to inform the
user base about important topics
by broadening their horizons to
see what others are discussing. If
trends are biased, as they so often
are, towards the privileged, then a
cycle of focusing only on the issues
discussed by certain powerful
groups of people will perpetuate.
And this will occur despite the
strong communities speaking out
on alternative and more honest
realities. But social media can
work against this honesty by
inducing a groupthink, tunnel-
vision mentality. Sifting through
users to find diverse content is
definitely
possible.
However,
this is simply another barrier to
an otherwise open, equalizing
platform for free speech and
understanding. Younger people
are the demographic of social
media sites, and if they are
exposed only to one wave of
feminist discourse because of
these barriers, they will face
the often invisible problem of
ignorance.
Twitter is simply the starting
point. It allows me to listen to
women speaking directly and
honestly about their lives, and I
am grateful that it had a role in
changing me from a relatively
uninformed girl into someone
who can learn from women
experiencing life differently than
I do. It is exciting to participate
in #Hashtag Feminism, but it is
important to not become simply
a product of a fledgling wave of
feminism, one that developed out
of hashtags and campaigns, one
that is wide-reaching and with the
potential for an engaging and well-
rounded discourse but still falls
short in terms of representation.
If your goal is to learn from social
media, it is important to follow
people who do not share all of your
experiences. It is important to not
only embrace but also actively
seek intersectionality.
—Madeline Nowicki can be
reached at nowickim@umich.edu.