Queer, Black, Intersectional Davidson: An Archival Project

identity as plural.xml

Media

Part of Identity as plural

content

P
ersPectives
WWW
.
davidsonian
.
com
P
age
9
Identity as plural
As Christi Moore previously stated, the th Annual
Apocalypse Greek Step Show was a fantastic success!
Yet, as she addressed, not everyone was able to see it that
way. It’s funny that the events of Spring Frolics 2012, or
the so-called “Davidson Riot,” have been brought up. To
many individuals on campus, these two events hold key
similarities. I agree, they do, but for very different reasons
than what the general populous might believe. Unlike the
majority of the Davidson community, I was present at the
“riot” and the Step Show Afterparty. I watched both events
unfold and made careful note of the aftermath, but it is not
the extremely problematic and racist aftermath that I am
concerned with at the moment. That is another story for
another time. I want to go back to these two events that are
not synonymous at all unless you account for the police
presence.
In both these instances, despite the fact that there
was more than an acceptable amount of police officers
present on campus, I remember police presence more
than I remember police activity. During the events at the
Black Student Coalition house two years ago, I watched
as fellow, mostly black, Davidson students broke up fights
and attempted to restore order. I saw people I knew and
cared about placed in harm’s way in order to protect our
friends, our students, our house and even individuals who
were relatively unknown to us. What did I see uniformed
officers do that night? I saw one officer mace an entire
house of people that were, for the most part, attempting
to keep the situation under control. I saw officers throw
menacing shouts and stares at a crowd of confused
people. I saw officers attempt to shove brown bodies off
this campus, many of them being students and residents
of Davidson. I watched BSC executive board members,
including myself, roughly forced out and away from our
house. I saw and felt nothing beyond utter disrespect from
the police forces that supposedly stormed on this campus
to “protect” us. I felt more protected by my roommate as
she shielded me from a man twice my size. I felt safer with
my friend as he pulled me out of a window, attempting to
shield me from the mace.
I wish I could say that I was surprised when I
encountered almost the same treatment last weekend.
Again, I watched Davidson students put themselves in
harm’s way to prevent violence from erupting before any
officer did anything. In fact, because of the efforts of these
Davidson students and others, no violence truly erupted.
Nothing happened. Yet I watched as blue lights flooded
our campus again. I watched as police officers spent
more time, energy and resources forcing brown bodies
off campus than attempting to resolve what had, at this
point, become a non-issue. I watched as a police officer
told my roommates and I to “get in your cars and get out of
here” despite the fact that we have been Davidson students
for quite some time. When we mentioned as much to the
officer, he proceeded to tell us to “go on!” and “get!” Again,
I watched as brown bodies were disrespectfully herded off
this campus like animals. I watched as a white student
shouted “shut up!” at us, unprompted, as we attempted to
reason with the police officer.
Like many, I was immediately reminded of the events
of Spring Frolics before, but not because of the amount
of ethnic minorities on campus or the “scuffle” that
DavidsonNews.net has claimed I should be familiar with.
At this point, the only situation that I am familiar with
is harassment by those who supposedly have pledged
to serve and protect this community. I am familiar with
being targeted simply because I am black which, for some
reason, allows an officer of the law to assume that I am
not welcome and a threat. There is a major disconnect
happening on this campus, specifically in relation to the
ethnic minority community. We are at a place where the
college seems to be keener on policing students of color
than protecting, supporting and thanking them. If I were
to go on the basis of my experience at these two events
alone, I don’t have a protective police force. Instead, I
have extraordinary friends.
I didn’t write this article out of anger or to point fingers.
Rather, I wrote it to tell a story. It’s a story that has been
glossed over, if touched on at all, in my years at Davidson.
Being treated so disrespectfully is painful, frustrating
and unnecessary. I know that the Davidson community is
one that constantly strives for more inclusion and more
conversation. If anything, situations like these tell us,
above everything, that we need to strive harder.
Calley Anderson ’14 is an English major from
Memphis, TN. Contact her at caanderson@davidson.edu
Calley Anderson
Revisiting the revisited
Colin Vaida
I think the Davidson discourse on LGBTQIA
inclusion is obsessed with sex. When I opened the
Davidsonian from two weeks ago and read the results
of the survey presented by the Task Force on LGBTQIA
Affairs, I found myself not surprised and simply upset at
the entire situation. I am tired of this hetero/non-hetero
binary we have on campus and the obsession of issues
related to it. I am tired of the constant call to action on
campus based on singular identifications. And I am tired
of defining my identity on whether I like penis, vagina,
both or neither. Sexual preference and the subsequent
identification have me extremely exhausted, and the
constant barrage of Davidson culture concerns regarding
sexuality is problematic.
The recent SGA elections, the RLO flag issue,
LGBTQIA visibility and this survey all represent a
preoccupation with sexual preference. Looking at the
SGA presidential candidates, every single one of them
rightly claimed the importance of visibility on campus
for all communities, especially those who identify
as non-straight. But, this identification of non-hetero
simply denormalizes and stigmatizes an entire group
of people over who they want to have sex with. This
constant talk of inclusion based on sexuality just goes
to further a group’s sense of oppression and invisibility.
We highlight individual groups who are on the outside
looking in and justifiably demand equal visibility and
inclusion, but we fail to realize that this essentializing
of people into a single identification is painful and
harmful. We treat these issues in an identity vacuum
without noticing that people are plural and not just one
essential thing. The talk on LGBTQIA visibility and
inclusion falls into this trap of defining people through
a single identity, non-heterosexual, and in this way we
forget the other parts that make an individual. Thus, we
contribute to the continued invisibility of persons on our
campus and continue to focus on sexual preference as a
demarcation for inclusion. Pointing to LGBTQIA as a
community or group of people who share this essential
identity is not factual and extremely problematic. People
are twelve different things before their sexual preference
and the direction of this discourse frustrates me.
Race, gender, sexuality, nationality, language,
occupation and more all go into the pot of what makes up
an individual, and a lot of times these parts of us conflict.
As a white male learning to be a feminist, a lot of the time
these two identifications clash, and given my privilege
it is often difficult for me to understand and empathize
with oppression when I have never experienced it. These
two identities that are a part of me do not always match,
and I have to live with this difference, but Davidson’s
current language of inclusion ignores these differences.
Given my personal example, I am sure many others on
this campus deal with similar issues of identification, and
to treat inclusion through single monolithic communities
ignores the identity conflicts within us. This monolith
of non-hetero baffles me; sexuality is a spectrum not
a well-defined binary between two opposite ends
(heterosexual and not heterosexual). I want a community
that respects sexuality AND understands the plurality
of an individual. Our campus needs to shy away from
language that universalizes an experience such as
sexuality. Sexuality and the engendered stereotypes are
not tangible realities, but rather societal norms imposed
on us through institutions of state, religion and more.
Rather, our campus requires a varied sense of human
beings, not a dialogue dominated with surveys that
create a binary.
This commentary does not want to disqualify the
work that is being done and the work that needs to be
done to promote an inclusive community. I just do not
want to set up LGBTQIA as something different than
what is normal, as if those of the hetero Davidson are
part of what is uniform and correct. This discourse that
permeates our campus is a good one, but it needs some
direction and clarification. In order for our campus to
understand each other I encourage a lens of ambiguity
with which to view one another. Ambiguity shies away
from assumptions, and traditional definitions of what
it means to be woman, man, gay, straight, transgender,
bisexual etc. I strongly encourage everyone on campus to
take a Gender Studies and Sexuality course with which to
enrich your understanding of how to view the person as
plural. And if not a GSS course, there are plenty of other
resources with which to learn more, including lectures
on campus, student club activities and GSS faculty. I
also encourage more people to write and express their
opinions in this publication and others on campus. This
dialogue needs to continue and action needs to use it
as a spring board. So please take this commentary and
talk with me and others on how we can solve the issues
Davidson faces.

Some of these identities are not tangible constructs
of who we are to begin with. Many would contend, myself
included, that the notion of race and gender are societal
constructs. Differences between people (penis-vagina)
are assigned appropriate behaviors and attributes, when
in fact they do not exist. The same could be said for
most of the identifiers in this list. My own subsequent
identification works within these constructs despite my
own recognition of their fallacy, because of my inclusion
into this society.

Colin Vaida ’16 is undeclared from Miami, Fl.
Contact him at covaida@davidson.edu
“I wish I could say that I was sur-
prised when I encountered almost the
same treatment last weekend.”
“I saw and felt nothing beyond utter
disrespect from the police forces that
supposedly stormed on this campus to
‘protect’ us.”
“We are at a place where the col-
lege seems to be keener on policing
students of color than protecting, sup-
porting, and thanking them.”
“I want a community that respects
sexuality AND understands the plu-
rality of an individual.”

Is Format Of

identity as plural.pdf