Rejecting Racism

In a relatively isolated community, it is often hard for people of color to feel acknowledged. With a school prominently dominated by White students, there is seemingly a lack of representation for those who don’t fit into that demographic. Luckily with the help of guest speaker and professor Emily Bernard from the University of Vermont, students across the Woodstock community have been educated on Bernard's perspective on racism and have been prompted with thoughts they may not have otherwise considered in regards to racism and its constant presence.

Emily Bernard is a well accomplished author and professor at the University Of Vermont. With a plethora of books focused heavily on the way Race affects American people, the author was certainly well versed for her presentation to the High School last Wednesday.

Bernard began by saying that she hopes to inspire us as students to discuss the issues of race.

Bernard spoke in detail about the way different members of the African American community are affected by aspects of racial issues. She brought up the idea that to be voiceless was to be powerless and therefore that we, as humans, gained power from our voices.

As Bernard proceeded in her engaging, anecdote filled presentation, she challenged the students listening beyond the screen to question what stories of Black lives they saw and why they thought they saw those stories over others. Bernard's essay collection, Black is the Body, was her book to showcase a different type of Black experience than solely what the media presents.

In particular, she highlighted the struggle of African American women who because of their skin color and gender, have been marginalized for years due to negatively impactful stereotypes. She elaborates on this point by stating: “women have historically been expected to take a back seat along the road to racial progress.”

She later discussed the idea of “intersectionality” and the Anti-feminine critique in the black community. She stated that you cannot simply be black or a woman because both yield different interactions. Bernard highlighted the idea that intersectionality essentially means that no one can have only one identity. And these overlapping identities are what connect us to others.

Additionally, a point many students found to be the most valuable takeaway from the presentation was Bernard's discussion of the Racial Empathy Gap. She shared an example of this Racial Empathy Gap noting that some people, including medical professionals, think that Black people feel less pain than White people, when all humans feel pain in similar ways.

After the presentation, students met in advisories to discuss both what resonated with them and what may have surprised them in the presentation. Social Action Club members had a further discussion with Dr. Bernard around the topic of race and the part their club can play in creating a more knowledgeable and equitable school.