But What Does NCORE Mean?

I’ve spent the past couple days explaining what I did at NCORE and what I did in New Orleans. I’ve claimed to learn quite a bit. But what does this mean for my life and for everyone in general? I can say I learned a lot, but unless I can apply this stuff to real life, it means very little. So here are some things that I am taking away from the experience.

First, I am now more aware of the privilege that I have been afforded being a white male in this white-dominated, patriarchal society. One thing we discussed at NCORE was social identity. I have come to identify as a white male. I am still trying to understand what this means, but I know that I am given a great deal of privilege just by being a white male. I know that I am treated better because of this, and I know that I am given more opportunities because of this. Just knowing this means nothing, though. I have to help make others aware of this, and I have to work so that other races and ethnicities can be given the opportunities that I have been given. I’m talking about an even playing field where the same amount of work by two people, regardless of their backgrounds, will earn them the same reward. My point here is that I’ve given privilege without working for it. I certainly do feel bad about this, but I’m not going to sit here just feeling guilty. I’m going to go out and make sure this unequal system becomes fairer.

Second, I’ve developed more of an understanding of what my social identity is. From what I can gather, I’m a lower-to-middle class, 20 year old, nerdy, heterosexual, white, male first generation college student from the Midwest. To be honest, I only know what some of those things mean to me. Some are more cogent to me than others. I am completely unaware of what my ethnicity is. I want to say I am “American” but what exactly does that mean? This has made me realize that I am still on a journey of self-understanding. I’m thinking I’m going to be learning about myself for years to come. What does this mean for other people? I think this means that others could be developing their identities like I am. Furthermore, someone may identify as something that others do not see them as. So I may call someone African-American, but they could identify as something else. The point here is that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I should let others introduce their identities to me. In addition, certain identities come with drawbacks or advantages due to society and history. It is important for us to fix this because no one should feel like their identity is a curse.

Finally, I’ve learned that society has a long way to go to achieve racial and ethnic harmony. At the moment, there is so much inequality, prejudice, and unpreparedness in relation to race and ethnicity. Our country, and others to some extent, has a lot of work to do if racial equality is ever to be achieved. I realize that we have made some great strides in the past, but we still have work to do. The existence of hate groups as well as the Fisher court case proves that we still need to work. I feel like we are at a place where we can move forward, we can stay where we are at, or we can regress. All are likely options, but they only one we should pursue is going forward. Think about it, do you really want future generations to see ours as a hateful one? Do you really want your children to grow up in a prejudiced society? We have to keep pushing and trying so that the world of tomorrow is a better one.

After all, it would make Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and various other civil rights activists proud of us.