Is Your Feminism White?
White feminism fails to address oppressive systems that affect multiply marginalized women and how white women are complicit in racism.
Many of us first learn about feminism as a U.S. movement started by the white suffragettes in the 19th century. However, their racism and oppressive tactics often go unacknowledged. White suffragettes were fighting for equal power with white men; they wanted to take the reins of oppression themselves and saw issues of race and sex as separate. Their Black women contemporaries saw that sexism was interrelated to the racism they faced themselves, and Sojourner Truth noted that their struggle was intersectional in her speech Ain’t I a Woman:
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Today, we define white feminism as feminism that centers white women. White feminism fails to address oppressive systems that affect multiply marginalized women and how white women are complicit in racism. We see this play out in media and politics in the United States. Women elected to office perpetuate an imperialist agenda, capitalism is further ingrained into our daily lives through hashtags such as #GirlBoss, and the voices of trans women and women of color are continuously silenced or policed.
Under a veil of fighting for all women’s rights, white feminism seeks to elevate white women's experiences as a roadmap to equality while simultaneously ignoring and even perpetuating unjust treatment of women with oppressed identities. Like other groups with a single marginalized identity, the objective of white feminists is not to dismantle systems of oppression such as patriarchy and capitalism but rather to succeed within them.
Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” to describe how race, sexuality, and class overlap to create distinct experiences for Black, Indigenous, and other women of color. Gender inequality cannot be separated from these other identities because some people face repercussions from more than just one system of oppression.
As opposed to white feminism, intersectional feminism centers on the experiences of multiply marginalized women as a collective, acknowledging that white women and marginalized women hold different hierarchical positions in society. As Audre Lorde wrote:
Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you, we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs upon the reasons they are dying.
Here are some ways we can move towards intersectional feminism:
Stepping aside so marginalized women can speak their truth. Tone policing inhibits marginalized women by centering white women and their comfort. Some truths will be uncomfortable, but marginalized women are not responsible for others’ feelings.
Doing our homework. Instead of leaning on marginalized women in our spheres to educate us, we can learn about intersectional issues ourselves. One simple way is by following marginalized women’s platforms on social media and listening to their stories and perspectives.
Processing our trauma. When we have endured trauma of any kind, it can be difficult to listen to marginalized women and the anger they can rightfully feel. When we take the time to heal ourselves, we can show up for our community, ready to listen without making it about ourselves.
Taking responsibility for the ways we benefit from white supremacy. Knowledge of oppressive systems does not negate our complicity in them — we must actively fight against them.
How are you working towards dismantling white feminism? Let us know in the comments below!
A Love Letter to the Black Women in My Life
Giving flowers to some of those who have deeply impacted me and elevating their legacies
As a white Latina working in “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion), I often teach concepts innovated by Black women. Audre Lorde,, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Mia McKenzie, adrienne maree brown, Ava Duvernay, Amanda Seales, Solange Knowles, and countless other Black writers, artists, and activists have contributed their genius and experience to society. They have also shaped not only my view of the world, but of my place in it.
Black history is an everyday occurrence that deserves recognition, and Black people have legacies that include both their accomplishments and the impact they have on their communities. In conceptualizing an article for Black History Month, I thought about all the topics I could write about academically. However, it would make little sense to repeat what many Black women have said in much deeper, more profound ways than I ever could. So instead, I will celebrate the Black women+* in my life who are currently making history, people whom I deeply admire and who simply by their existence have taught me myriad lessons that I will always carry with me.
This list is by no means exhaustive – it would take a whole book to thank every Black woman I’ve had the pleasure of knowing! My hope is to give flowers to some of those who have deeply impacted me and to elevate their legacies.
I had the incredible fortune of working with Alma for three years as a facilitator, consultant, and project manager at Movement. Throughout her time with us, she weathered the ups and downs of working in a startup environment with flexibility, grace, and compassion. She is a brilliant coach and public speaker who is now the founder and CEO at Full Bloom, specializing in mindset coaching for BIPOC professionals who are ready to get through mental blocks and achieve the growth they’ve imagined for themselves (currently accepting new clients!). She was also recently appointed as Stanford University’s Assistant Director of Alumni Relations, Identity Chapters in the Graduate School of Business. Alma taught me the art of persistence in going after what you want, how to set and maintain professional boundaries effectively, and how to cut yourself some slack in times of difficult growth.
Tenley Hutchinson-Smith (they/them)
I have known Tenley since they were an undergraduate student at Spelman College and have watched them blossom into a brilliant astrophysicist and PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Aside from their many accomplishments as a scientist and researcher of Thorne-Żytkow objects, Tenley is a scholar and philosopher in every sense of the word. Their reflections on the universe, human relationships, and the interconnectedness of all things have fundamentally changed my perspective on life. One day Tenley will write a book, but for now, I feel genuinely lucky to be part of their sphere of influence and privy to their brilliant insights. They have taught me how to embrace your unique self, how to keep a childlike sense of wonder, and how not to take life too seriously.
If you are a scientist in any space field, you have probably heard of Ashley. She is lovingly known as a firecracker and wherever they see a need, they fill it. Ashley has created multiple initiatives that serve the Black community, including being the founder of Black in Astro and Black Space Week as well as the co-founder of Black in Chem. She is also the recipient of the NASA FINESST graduate research grant as a PhD candidate at Howard University. No matter where they go, Ashley is always connecting people to resources and making sure they have what they need to succeed. Ashley has taught me what it means to be a loyal and unwavering advocate, how to take up your rightful space in the world, and how to be 100% authentic both publicly and behind closed doors.
Moiya and I met when she was an undergraduate at Harvard double-majoring in astrophysics and folklore/mythology. Now, she is a world-renowned astrophysicist, folklorist, science communicator, and the author of The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy. Moiya is an amazing public speaker and has also created and co-hosted a number of podcasts, including Fate & Fabled, Exolore, and Pale Blue Pod. A little-known fact about Moiya is that we once recorded (and never released!) a podcast called Cinnamon Sugar, about being the “minority” partner in an interracial/interethnic relationship. She has taught me how to be brave even in the face of fear, how to advocate for yourself, and how to stay grounded in your truth when straddling multiple worlds.
I have known Arianna for so long I do not remember where we met! But it doesn’t matter, because it feels like they’ve always been in my life. Arianna has had a fruitful career both as an astrophysicist – she’s newly appointed faculty at the University of Washington – and as a fierce advocate for marginalized people. For the last several years, they have been the chief programming officer at VanguardSTEM, where they have created radical mentoring initiatives to support women of color. Most recently, Arianna and I had the chance to collaborate on the Rainbow Village, a dedicated space for people of color at American Astronomical Society meetings. She has taught me how to be unapologetically yourself, how to take pride in your roots, and the importance of pleasure in our liberation.
Asia and I met under unusual circumstances, in a graduate student support group while we were working on our PhDs, hers in biochemistry with a focus on environmental immunotoxicology. We bonded over the shared experience of being women of color in white-dominated STEM spaces, but also our mutual values of equity and social justice. Asia is a talented scientist and has long been Movement’s resident biologist, hosting our Instagram lives during Black History Month and being a regular co-host whose perspectives gave our audience valuable insights on topics such as “Bad” Genes and Black Women on Display. I have always admired how passionate she is about biology and how gifted she is at explaining complex ideas. Throughout our friendship, Asia has taught me how to communicate both science and emotions with ease, how to persevere through incredible obstacles, and how to be a supportive and compassionate mom.
I first met Caprice when she was a junior PhD student and I was visiting her department to present a symposium lecture. The night before the symposium, she took me aside to ask for advice about the difficulties she was facing in her program, and I was shocked at how much they aligned with my own. The next day, I rewrote my whole talk in a few hours and spoke for the first time about the discrimination I experienced as a woman of color during my PhD training. Caprice switched to the Ohio State University, where she has excelled as an astrophysics PhD candidate studying planetary formation – most recently as a pre-doctoral fellow at the Flatiron Institute Center for Computational Astrophysics. She is passionate about ensuring that Black people around the world have access to space, most recently as the vice-president of #BlackInAstro. Caprice has taught me how to reach your goals against all odds, how to lean on community, and how to prove the haters wrong.
I met Ashley at my university’s Career Center during a pivotal moment in my career: I knew I wanted to leave academia, but I had no idea what I could do with a PhD in astronomy outside of research. As a career counselor, Ashley had never taken on an astronomy student or a PhD student before, but she was determined to make sure I had the support I needed. Since then, Ashley has worked as the Assistant Director of Alumni Relations for the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, and recently took on the role of Associate Director of Annual Giving. She is one of the best mentors I’ve ever known, and I credit her as one of the biggest reasons my career is where it is today. She states “I am guided by my faith in Christ and am blessed to mentor and share in the journeys of students who come to me by God’s providence through my work in higher education.” Ashley was the first person to tell me I was meant to be in my own lane, and taught me how to negotiate, network, and be fearless in my endeavors.
Angela Twum (she/her)
Angela and I met in 2017 at a summer research program at Harvard, where we had the opportunity to participate in weekly discussions about intersectionality, misogynoir, environmental racism, and other social justice topics through a curriculum designed by Prof. Nia Imara. I was continually in awe of Angela’s keen awareness not only of the material, but of exactly how these systems manifested in her lived experience. As both a scientist and an artist, she has always done things at a pace that makes the most sense for her. Before deciding to pursue a PhD in astrophysics, Angela was accepted into the prestigious Parsons School of Design data visualization program. Despite external pressure to immediately continue her academic pursuits after undergrad, she decided to take a year off to spend time with her family back home in Ghana. When she was ready, she accepted a position at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she is currently studying binary star systems, common envelope evolution, and mass ejection. Angela has taught me how to prioritize the most important aspects of my life, how to cultivate a relationship with the land, and how to love with an open heart.
*Not everyone on this list identifies as a woman
Mentoring in Academia: Healing Our Wounds to Foster Justice
To be excellent mentors to marginalized people, we must first look inward.
The Issue with Status-Quo Mentorship
While mentorship can be a very positive experience, it also exists within multiple systems of oppression. Without intentional awareness, mentorship can easily perpetuate the cycles of harm within those systems.
Academia operates as a hierarchy — a system where people are ranked based on status or authority. This creates a power imbalance between mentors and mentees in addition to the imbalance in responsibility and knowledge exchange.
Mentorship is not part of the academic curriculum: we learn how to mentor from our mentors. If we experience harm as mentees and cannot heal, chances are that the people we mentor will inherit that pain. Healing, though, can be messy: not only because of the painful experiences we must revisit but the grief that comes with realizing it did not have to be that way. In a space that prioritizes productivity over humanity, mentoring can be a venue to recenter our humanity.
Our Responsibility as Mentors
A necessary step for creating mutually nurturing and compassionate mentoring relationships is realizing how we perpetuate the same harm we have experienced.
“Well, my mentor / research advisor / professor did it this way.”
“It was way worse when I was a student.”
We might have heard these justifications for abuses of power, or we may have said something similar ourselves. However, these statements fail to acknowledge our personal responsibility to be better mentors.
Aside from career status, mentors have power based on their positionality — the social and political context that creates our identities regarding race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status. It can be challenging to accept when we hold power because many of us, especially those with colonially marginalized identities, see power as inherently dangerous and a means to oppress others. Because of that stigma, we may default to meeting that power with shame and guilt. But denying the power we hold can cause real harm: either by steamrolling mentees or not leveraging our power for their benefit.
So what do we do instead? As Dolly Chugh put it, the first step is to “figure out the parts of [our] identities we think about the least” to create awareness of our power and privilege. For example, I am a queer disabled person, which disadvantages me in a straight-dominant and ableist society. With English as my first language though, I never have to think about being able to communicate in the English-dominant US. Once we contextualize our identities, we can start learning about the experiences of people with different identities without centering ourselves. This can give us new insight into how we interact with other people. (You can learn more about privilege, power, and positionality here).
Can Things Change?
Heck yeah! How we treat others is a reflection of how we treat ourselves, which we learn from how others treated us in the past. When we meet all the parts of ourselves with compassion, we can use our power to foster justice. When we treat ourselves with kindness and respect, we can treat mentees with that same energy. When we acknowledge our agency, we can do that for others.
For instance, the mentors who claimed they had no power to help me navigate academic issues were also the ones who felt comfortable making career decisions on my behalf. But one of the best mentors I’ve had not only taught me how to take research notes, but also how to get the services I needed for my disabilities. I could get testing and transport accommodations without her being directly involved, which was empowering. Even today, I use her tips whenever I need to call doctors or customer service lines. It’s through acts like this that we can leverage our power in a way that allows others to claim their own.
Activist Toni Cade Bambara said “If your house ain’t in order, you ain’t in order. It is so much easier to be out there than right here. The revolution ain’t out there. Yet. But it is here.” We all want to be a part of a big revolution in academia, and that big revolution starts within us.
Toward Empowered Mentoring
At Movement Consulting, we believe that mentorship is more than just a mechanism to expand our networks and resumes. It can be a way for folks at all career stages to care for each other and honor their humanity. That’s why we developed Intent to Impact: A 12-Week Course to Foster Genuine Relation in Academia Through Mentorship. This is not your average Mentoring 101 course. It is a transformative and communal journey.
From contextualizing systemic oppression to radical reinvention, our peer-coaches aid in creating a space for everyone to learn and express themselves without judgment. Through the dismantling of shame and guilt, we can practice radical vulnerability. That means we get to show up in our communities as our whole, authentic selves, something that is often missing in academic spaces.
Our positionalities are not just our identities, they are the lens we use to understand and navigate the world. Expanding this lens to include the experiential knowledge of others is another key aspect of creating nurturing relationships that foster justice. Together we can reimagine anything, but let’s start with mentoring.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Interested in radically reimaging mentorship? Sign up for our Intent to Impact course here.
Reading for Joy
Taking pleasure in books is an anti-capitalist practice.
If we take a moment to explore the associations we have with reading, many of us likely view it as a tool for learning productivity. This makes sense, given that from primary school, we are assigned reading material for grades and tests. But what if reading could be a resource that does more than just teach us?
When we read for joy, we are taking a radical stance against the values of capitalism. We realize that reading does not have to be a tedious chore, but instead a journey, an exploration, a fun time, a grounding experience, and so much more.
Why is reading because we want to so important? Societal pressures often blur the line between what we want to read and what we think we should read in our spare time. The pressure to be productive can warp our relationship with reading into one that is obligatory. While gaining knowledge can be important for challenging oppressive systems, we can easily lose touch with reading for personal pleasure––and lose a valuable resource that can help us recharge away from institutional expectations.
Below are some ways reading for joy can have a positive impact on our lives:
Engaging with multiple perspectives: By reading something outside our own experience, we can challenge our prejudices, thoughts, and ideas. We can take a step back and reflect, in our own space, at our own pace, and not have to keep up with anyone but ourselves. We can use reading as a tool to help our introspection journeys––wherever they may lead.
Exploring multiple realities: Existing in the modern world can often feel bleak and overwhelming. Reading allows us to immerse ourselves in and imagine worlds that are wildly different from our own. This can help us escape, cope, and come up with better ways of living and relating to each other.
Resting and recharging: While we often think of resting as passive, the most rejuvenating type of rest is active: a fun challenge we can give our brain that has nothing to do with work. That means curling up with a good book can do more to recharge us than streaming our favorite show or taking a nap!
There are no rules when it comes to reading for joy. We have been conditioned to believe there are “right” and “wrong” ways to read, but the reality is - you can do whatever you want.
Did you start reading a book and not enjoying it as much as you thought? Stop reading it and start something new. Do you get bored of reading one book at a time? Read three, four, or however many you want. Slow reader? That’s okay too. Ultimately, reading is a dynamic personal journey. We can empower ourselves to make choices that work for us.
Reading is a choice we can make for ourselves. There is no inherent value, meaning, or responsibility associated with reading. There is no pressure, no stakes, but rather many avenues by which we can experience radical joy, happiness, and delight. After a lifetime of being forced to read, it can feel empowering to take back our relationship with the written word.
What do you plan on reading for pleasure?
The Case for Creative Placemaking
Where art and community come together.
Placemaking is a multidimensional approach to community development that strengthens the connection between people and the places they share. Its main philosophy states that housing development alone is not sufficient to improve the quality of life in a community. This philosophy empowers us to think more broadly and to advocate for community rights like accessible transportation and more green spaces in our neighborhoods.
Creative placemaking adds to this idea by introducing art and culture into the placemaking process for BIPOC, queer, and immigrant communities. It allows for cultural exchange between community members and provides the opportunity for empathic connection. Have you ever been to a block party or a cultural event? These are examples of creative placemaking.
We can also begin to decolonize our identities by centering, healing, and celebrating our ancestral cultures. Creative placemaking celebrates unique aspects of our communities, provides us the opportunity to take up space, and resists assimilation. It can help us forge authentic connections to Indigenous history and struggle and create traditions by welcoming communities seeking refuge from systemic injustice.
While creative placemaking is not commonly discussed, there are many ways to practice it in our everyday lives. Some examples include:
1. Connecting to each other virtually. Group video calls with friends or organizing virtual events can be easy and accessible ways to connect with folks and stay in touch. This helps reduce the geographic barriers to accessing our community, especially for disabled people.
2. Participating in community gatherings. Potlucks, block parties, and paint & sips are places where we can express cultural appreciation through food, stories, music, and traditions in public spaces.
3. Using art to decorate our homes and communal spaces. Using art from our cultures and experiences can make our homes and communities welcoming, celebratory, and affirming spaces for ourselves and others.
A crucial part of creative placemaking is acknowledging and honoring the land we’re inhabiting. We can research the history of the Indigenous people who have and continue to live on it. By including land acknowledgments and supporting efforts like the Land Back movement, our creative placemaking resists settler-colonial patterns of oppression.
Creative placemaking challenges us to reexamine our relationships to land, our responsibilities to one another, and to our cultural identities. Taking up space, gathering, and celebrating each other is an act of resistance, a way to heal, and a process through which we can feel rooted in our spaces.
Through creative placemaking, we can find various ways of belonging, connecting, and being in community with one another. Although many of our cultures have been suppressed by colonialism, we can find radical joy in our homes and collective spaces by reclaiming our traditions and creating new ones along the way.
What are some ways you already practice creative placemaking? Are there examples of creative placemaking in your community?
Childism: A Movement for the Rights of Children
Children deserve bodily autonomy and personal agency just like adults do.
Childism is the pro-child movement fighting against adultism, a set of societal prejudices against children. Through these prejudices, adults see children as property they can control or remove from the home to serve their needs and whims –– rather than as human beings deserving of equal treatment.
Many of us engage with adultism without realizing its severity. This deeply ingrained ideology equates a child’s dependency on adults with subordination and assumes a child is incapable of making their own decisions. When we engage in adultism, we take away a child’s right to agency, including bodily autonomy.
Capitalism teaches us to connect human value to labor productivity. Since they often cannot provide labor, children are seen as less valuable than working adults and thus less deserving of rights. This adultist view of children not only causes them harm, they then continue the cycle by carrying those same views with them into adulthood.
By advocating for childism, we can move toward a society where everyone has sovereignty and is treated with respect, regardless of their societal contributions. Children need understanding, compromise, affection, and care just as adults do; they are individuals with their own bodies, minds, and thoughts.
Adultism has long-lasting intergenerational effects. Leaving our inner children unhealed can compromise our ability to set nurturing boundaries in our relationships. When our needs are not met in these relationships, there is a negative effect both on our self-worth and on those around us––including the children in our lives.
Childism acknowledges the needs of children and can also help us reconcile with childhood trauma.
Here are some ways we can begin to practice childist values:
Acknowledging children’s agency and autonomy. Asking for consent before hugs and allowing children to voice when they are tired or overwhelmed teaches them bodily autonomy and choice.
Talking to children with respect and kindness. When we talk down to children, we make them feel inferior and invalidated.
Encouraging children’s curiosity. Healthy questioning of the world around them sets a precedent for healthy exploration of their identity, relationships, and politics.
Engaging in mutual aid that supports children and their caretakers. These community networks allow people to reach out for needs like childcare and supplies, while those who are available can offer support to meet those needs.
These practices promote self-advocacy in children and can lead to a more loving relationship with ourselves and others. Moreover, they become models for children in developing their own identities and relationships.
What are some ways you experienced adultism as a child? What are some ways you can empower the children in your life?
The 4 F’s of Trauma
Whenever our past trauma is activated, it can present in one of four ways.
Understanding Trauma Responses
Trauma is an emotional response to a deeply disturbing event that leads to overwhelming feelings, including hopelessness and loss. Some examples of traumatic events include natural disasters, physical or emotional violence, and not having basic needs met.
Traumatic events and post-traumatic symptoms are both painful and deeply personal. Common psychological symptoms can include feelings of sadness, anger, and shame–but these symptoms can also manifest physiologically, such as through trouble with sleep and appetite irregularity. The ways in which post-traumatic symptoms can present are very complex and open to interpretation by the person experiencing them.
The Four F’s
Trauma triggers our bodies to enter survival mode. As our brains attempt to protect us from real or perceived dangers, our adrenaline levels increase and our senses heighten. We can categorize these survival mechanisms into four categories: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. Identifying our psychological and physiological responses to triggers and trauma can often be challenging. Having the language to describe our experience can help.
While trauma can present in various ways, fight and flight are the most recognized. Fight responses can present as getting angry, raising our voices, and physically acting out. As a trauma response, it can also present as controlling behavior or holding unrealistic expectations of others. Flight responses, in contrast, are more avoidant. Avoiding confrontation, cutting off relationships, leaving an area, or isolating are common in flight mode.
There is less conversation around the freeze and fawn responses. Identifying these can be complex because they’re often misinterpreted as personality traits that are socially acceptable or even admirable.
The freeze response results in feeling stuck or unable to take action in the face of trauma and can be experienced as feeling heavy or dissociating. Triggers may seem inescapable, making us feel the need to “disappear.”
At its core, fawning involves people-pleasing to avoid confrontation. On the surface, it may be easy to confuse this response with having a nurturing personality. However, fawning can lead to patterns of extreme self-sacrifice to comfort others. Those who tend toward this trauma response can feel like they lack a unique identity, experience self-directed anger and guilt, and have difficulty with boundaries.
Reflecting on Our Trauma
The four F’s of trauma can start presenting in childhood, often as part of interactions in the home, when we are often invalidated or ostracized for our behaviors. Part of our healing can involve validating our childhood needs and those of the children around us. By identifying the underlying purpose of our individual trauma responses, we can better understand our triggers, our behaviors, and how to guide the healing process.
Reflecting on these four F’s can also help us empathize with ourselves and others facing similar struggles. Working with a mental health professional can be beneficial, but it can be financially inaccessible and may not be the right path for everyone. But by finding our healing paths, we can move towards destigmatizing our experiences with and reactions to trauma–– and therefore find ways for ourselves and our communities to thrive.
The Challenges of First-Generation Students
Navigating college without help from family members can make the experience especially challenging.
First-generation students are college students whose parents did not attend college. Many of these students come from immigrant or working-class families, where financial barriers are just one of the major structural obstacles they face.
Since first-gen students do not typically have close family members with college degrees, they are less likely to have guidance throughout the college experience. While being the first person to attend university can bring a lot of hope and joy for the family, it may leave the student feeling lost navigating the complicated higher education system alone.
First-generation students can face challenges before even entering the university. Tasks like filling out financial aid forms, deciding on housing and meal plans, and selecting classes can feel daunting and anxiety-inducing. Once enrolled, it can be difficult not to know what to expect out of the college experience. Many unspoken rules about how to form study groups, how to communicate with professors, and when to ask for help have a significant impact on a student’s success.
In addition to systemic challenges, first-generation students commonly experience psychological hardships. For instance, they may feel conflicted or guilty for having opportunities their family members did not have access to. Another common experience is feeling like an imposter among peers with a family history of higher education. More than a third of first-gen students are in racial or ethnic minority groups and have to navigate prejudices and stigma in college, which can leave them feeling further isolated and alienated.
Being a first-gen student comes with many socioeconomic, psychological, and academic challenges compared to multi-generational college students. With many first-gen students experiencing shame, confusion, and anxiety, navigating college can become overwhelming.
If you are a first-generation student, here are some tips for easing into college life:
Take advantage of events your school provides for newcomers, such as campus tours, mixers, and orientations. This may help you gain insight into campus culture and offer opportunities to socialize with peers.
Connect with other students and build a network on campus by joining clubs, organizations, and study groups.
Seek support from peers, faculty, administrators, and staff. Academic advisors can help with tasks like choosing classes or a major pathway, while financial aid advisors can help connect you with available financial resources.
If you are in a position of power, here are some ways you can support first-gen students:
Confront your own biases and preconceived notions. By keeping yourself open to the student’s experiences, you can understand the various dimensions of their identity. Making assumptions about first-gen students only further marginalizes them.
Give first-gen students space and understanding with their time and lived experiences. Ask questions about how you can support them, and avoid giving unsolicited advice. Only they know what college means for them and the obstacles they face.
Familiarize yourself with on-campus resources for first-generation students. Federal TRIO programs such as McNair Scholars provide funding, internships, and other opportunities for students from marginalized communities.
Although navigating academia can be challenging for first-gen students, it can also be rewarding. Beyond academic and career opportunities, it can be a time for personal growth and community building.
By becoming more aware of first-gen student struggles, we can find ways to decrease opportunity and resource gaps and make higher education more accessible.
What are some of your experiences as a first-gen student? How has your first-gen college experience impacted you?
The Importance of Workers’ Rights
While many of us may aspire for wealth, the vast majority of us are laborers — which means we have a stake in the strikes happening all over the world.
As labor exploitation in the U.S. rises amidst the global pandemic, companies have seen record profits while thousands of their workers are denied rights to benefits like health care and paid time off. In response to this exploitation, we are seeing a growing number of workers’ strikes.
Labor unions in the US have a long history of advocating for fair, safe, and quality working conditions. They’ve worked to abolish child labor and ensure health and retirement benefits and fair wages. However, we continue to see capitalism infringe upon these rights. For example, the average minimum wage for tipped servers has remained at $2.13/hr since 1996. Adjusting for inflation, that would be $3.70 today, but even that is not a living wage.
Labor injustices also intersect with other forms of institutional discrimination. For instance, multiply-marginalized people are far more likely to face exploitation due to employers' perceptions of their skill level. Employers can often use fear tactics based on race, class, gender, and immigration status to force employees to accept poor working conditions.
As we collectively realize that the bourgeoisie exploits us, the labor movement is growing. In August 2021, 4.3 million people quit their jobs–– with many of them demanding justice and equitable working environments. We all deserve to have work that we enjoy, work that accommodates us, and work that allows us to live bountiful lives.
Mainstream media in the U.S. would have us believe that there’s a labor shortage when in fact, there is a shortage of employers that provide healthy, safe, and humanizing workplace environments. In the face of an ongoing global pandemic, many of us have reexamined our worth and the context of our labor. As we reexamine labor in today’s context, it is important to support the unions and organizers who fight for workers’ rights.
Here are some ways we can support the labor movement:
Vote pro-worker in local elections. Look for legislation and nominees that advocate for worker protections over corporate profits.
Build community and solidarity. Support and listen to marginalized folks at your workplace and engage in mutual aid.
Join (or organize) labor unions. Maintaining discretion in these efforts is important, especially since marginalized employees are more vulnerable to retaliation from higher-ups.
Support businesses that ensure employees’ needs are met. These could be local shops, co-ops, or anti-capitalist firms.
Don’t cross the picket line. Refrain from purchasing from companies whose workers are on strike.
Capitalism tells us that our labor is intrinsic to our worth and that there is a natural hierarchy of labor. This economic system thrives on the exploitation of that labor to increase profits for those at the top, which is why access to basic needs like healthcare is not granted to many laborers.
We deserve better. By continuing to organize and support strikes and labor unions, we can make positive shifts as a community, for the benefit of all. We can move towards a world where our identity is more than just our jobs.
What labor injustices do you notice being enacted in your community? What are some small ways you can organize with your colleagues to improve working conditions?
Education as a Human Right
In the informational access era, we all deserve a high-quality education.
In the US, education is not a federal constitutional right, so education laws are made at the state level. Such laws do not account for systemic barriers and states are not required to provide quality accessible education.
The U.S. education system is based on capitalist values and does not focus on cultivating individual students' talents and interests. Instead of important life skills like money management and critical thinking, we are taught Eurocentric history and how to become efficient, complacent employees as adults.
Barriers to Elementary and Secondary Education
American education is one of the most financially inaccessible systems among developed nations. Public schools obtain funding from state and local governments based on their districts’ property taxes. Charter schools are publicly funded, but private companies formulate curricula and distribute funds with minimal state intervention.
Many students face food scarcity or food insecurity in their homes, and schools are not required to provide free, nutritional meal options. Yet, our brains cannot learn if we are hungry.
American schools operate in English, which can make education inaccessible to immigrants. Moreover, states are not required to provide education for undocumented children.
The Inaccessibility of U.S. Colleges
With the average cost to attend an American university at around $30,000, post-secondary education is inaccessible for many marginalized people. Because society holds university degrees as the only valid proof of education, many lower income students are going into substantial debt to gain access to better paying jobs. However, upper class students are more likely to already have access to resourced social networks from a young age and in return have higher paid positions in the future. This is in stark contrast to similarly developed countries where university education is free.
The Future of Education
This current era of technology has increased most people's ability to access knowledge and communicate globally. We can now acquire education through non-institutional and more accessible means such as free e-books, courses, and informational videos.
As we move toward valuing non-institutional education, we must include all wisdom in the conversation - as different cultures and backgrounds have a lot to teach us. Knowledge and wisdom from Black and Indigenous communities are valuable and can help us decolonize education. Reframing our perspectives on education from a privilege to a fundamental right and fighting for that right will help us all gain access to higher-quality lives.
What barriers to education have you noticed? What are your thoughts on the evolution of education?