By Suha Choi ‘22
(attached above is a discussion question slide from the workshop)
This year’s C&E day centered around anti-racism. Although not all 13 student-led workshops on the C&E day may have included the word race in their titles, all of them certainly had an influence in promoting anti-racism in our community, in one way or another. This important truth especially resonated with me after I led one of the workshops on “Introducing Body Positivity and Defining Basic Feminist Terms” with the Southborough Society co-heads, Tate Frederick’21 and Louise He’22.
As its title suggests, the workshop began with me and the other two student leaders explaining about what it means to become a more body-inclusive campus as well as defining the various feminist terms. But I dare say, it was when we moved on to the discussion questions that the workshop started flourishing and doing what it exactly was supposed to do: people started reflecting on how these issues applied to their own lives. One discussion question in particular lingered in my mind for the longest after the workshop was over: how is your body image influenced by your race? This question was important because it was a reminder that race has everything to do with our lives. In fact, the socially constructed concept of beauty standard in today’s media has much to do with race, another concept artificially constructed by society. Even as more and more institutions and individuals seek to embrace diversity, many often find themselves circling back to the same set of beauty standards applied across all races, neglecting the diverse, but all beautiful features that are inherent among us. In particular, this set of beauty standards centers “a type of white femininity that’s only accessible to a select few,” as Leah Donnella from NPR once described.
In this way, race and racial stereotypes encompass every aspect of our lives, whether it may seem explicit or too subtle to be noticed in our eyes. It is our job at St. Mark’s and at anywhere we will someday come across in life to notice these injustices and to help those around us notice them. Ms. Zhu, who has directed the C&E day, had announced earlier that this year will mark the end of C&E day tradition at St. Mark’s. This announcement, however, does not and shall not mark the end of truthful and engaging discussions on anti-racism at St. Mark’s. Perhaps, the most influential lesson we can all get out of this year’s C&E day is that all the discussions on this day are a continuation– we will continue to discuss, notice, and fix the many injustices that surround our lives which are based upon the mere color of our skin.