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Jameelah Jones talks "seesaw" between privilege and oppression at presentation
@UNIVERSITY
DAILYKANSAN
Jameelah Jones, a third-year graduate student from Conyers, Ga., addressed the inequalities between privilege and oppression and why people struggle to balance the equation during her "Last Lecture" presentation.
▶ LARA KORTE
@lara.karte
Wednesday's presentation, hosted by the Office of Multicultural Affairs, drew a crowd of about 35 students for nearly an hour in Alderson Auditorium. To elaborate on the complex web of dynamics, Jones used one simple metaphor: a seesaw.
"There's always this, like, heavy power on one side, and there's this heavy load on the other side, heavy power on one side, heavy load on the other side," Jones said, moving her arms up and down in a seesaw motion. "And your goal in social justice is to use your privilege at the top to leverage the load of the oppressed at the bottom, and it might not be so bad, right?"
A balancing act is not as simple as adjusting one end of the seesaw, Jones said. Jones explained that true
equilibrium in social justice must be constantly recalibrated and reexamined to guard against oppression. She compared it to two children trying to balance on the seesaw.
"You get two kids who figure out how to balance, but they don't get balanced, they get a constant shift of light load and heavy load — of privilege and oppression
or privilege and oppression — that has to be constantly course-corrected in order for balance to be maintained," Jones said. "Because they figured out the privilege at the top needs to levy their force for the oppression not to be so bad on the bottom."
Jones' hands slowly came together, shifting back and forth in the center of the imaginary seesaw.
"It's a little more balanced," she explained.
Balancing an inequality seems like a simple equation, especially when put in terms of playground equipment. However, when the question of balancing privilege and oppression comes into play in real-life situations, Jones says she sees hesitancy.
"It's easy to abstractly grasp, but why is it so hard?" Jones said. "Why is
raige Stingley/KANSAN
the moving and the shifting so hard, why do the shifting and the moving seem a lot slower and a lot more painful than it ought to be?"
The difficulty comes with the way people see their privileges, Jones said. She said if one were to sit down with what privilege means, they would probably come up with "two very scary realities." The first scary reality people confront is that if something about the world doesn't change, they'll be fine. The second reality is that if a certain something were to change about the world, they would lose.
Jameelah Jones talks about social injustices during her lecture, The SeeSaw: Part II as a part of the Last Lecture Series. The Last Lecture Series was put on by the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Jameelah Jones graduate student
Something being difficult doesn't mean nothing should be done."
To sum it up, Jones went back to a line she gave at her Tedx talk last year.
"People say they want change, but what they mean is, 'I want change that will allow me to stay exactly the same,'" Jones said. "What can I do? How can I participate in such a way that I don't have to do any type of changing at all?"
Jones criticized the "Band-Aid" solutions people tend to put on social injustice issues to avoid their own displacement, such as the hiring of a new position or the redistribution of responsibilities. Other times, she said people have a tendency to "talk themselves out of" change.
"Because we'd like to think it's because we don't have time or because we don't have effort or because we're not strong enough or
because of all the other "causes," Jones said. "But what are we talking ourselves out of? And maybe that seesaw is really hard to move because we talk ourselves out of trying to move it. Because we talk ourselves out of leveraging our positions on the top, for some reason."
Nearing the end of her lecture, Jones had a particular point to drive home. She said it's important to realize that "the way you walk through the world drastically affects the way others do."
"It's all connected," Jones said. "Making this world more socially equitable for everyone in it comes with the realization that you are both oppressed and oppressing, that there are ways in which we collude, and that we're always missing something."
Michaela Warren, a senior from Topeka, came to watch Jones' talk. Warren said she thinks Jones' metaphor is an accurate representation of a difficult abstract concept.
"I think it's a good visual representation of the system," Warren said. "Because when you think about it, you're like, 'What is it? How do you present this as an idea and a concept?' And I think the seesaw is the best way to do that, especially for people who don't understand."
Warren said she thinks talking about the seesaw is the first step to addressing inequality but said it might not be easy.
"Just starting conversation I think is one way to open the door," Warren said. "I think it's difficult because it makes a lot of people uncomfortable, and when they're uncomfortable they don't want to talk about anything."
Michael Sam, first openly gay former NFL player, shares his story
▶ MATT OSTROWSKI
@matto1233
"When you look yourself in the mirror, what do you see, and are you truly happy with that person?"
Sam spoke in front of about 200 people Wednesday night in the Union's Woodruff Auditorium. Sam began by talking about his rough uphiring and his struggle of getting into college.
After a relationship with his boyfriend leading up the end of his junior year at Mizzou, Sam was given the life-changing advice and decided to come out to his teammates. What was important to Sam, however, was coming out to himself.
"I cried because I knew that I was going to get to be the first one in my family to go to college." he said.
Before Michael Sam was the former professional football player we know him as today, his ex-boyfriend asked him a question that changed his life.
Sam had a historic senior year at Mizzou and won the SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors as he led Missouri to a Cotton Bowl victory. Sam played at Missouri from 2010 to 2013 and was
"I did not know what gay was," Sam said. "I just knew that I had some attractions to the same sex. But there was no one I could talk to."
"That was the first time in my life I had ever told myself I was gav." he said.
drafted in the seventh round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams.
Sam went on to discuss his arrival at the University of Missouri and its football program and coming to the realization that he was gay.
Sam says he was aware that many people in Missouri knew he was gay, which ultimately led him to come out to the entire world.
"We had to jump the gun, so that's what we did," he said. "February 9, 2014, I am in Los Angeles, I came out to the world and shocked the world, and here I am today."
"I would do it again in a heartbeat." he said.
Alex Robinson/KANSAN
4
Alex Robinson/KANSAN Michael Sam, who was the first openly gay NFL player on the St. Louis Rams team, speaks to KU students about his challenging childhood, his college football career and coming out as a gay athlete.
Sam said he came out so he could live his life freely, not afraid to hold the hand of the one he loves or kiss the one he loves.
- Edited by Skylar Rolstad
For Gwendolyn Schroeder, a freshman from Halstead, Sam is an inspiration.
At the end of the lecture, Jones acknowledged the struggles people might have when it comes to addressing their privileges but left the crowd with some final words of motivation.
"Something being difficult doesn't mean nothing should be done," Jones said.
Edited by Skylar Rolstad
"She tried to commit suicide twice. And the day that I came out she promised herself that she would never try to commit suicide again," Sam said. "She said I saved her life."
"He's just a major inspiration for LGBTQ people everywhere to be able to be open about who they are and who they love," said Schroeder.
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Colby Cox, a junior from Fort Scott, agreed.
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But at first, Sam said he didn't even realize the impact he had on people. It wasn't until a phone call with his friend's cousin that he did.
"I thought it was really inspiring, and I think that he is a big important figure in the LGBTQ community," Cox said.
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