My Miami Experience

For the last two days, I have been at a seminar on Privilege and Allies on campus here at Miami. Although we talked about many different types of privilege, including gender, religious, sexual orientation, and class, the seminar really centered on issues of race. The issue of race and privilege is actually the reason that I decided to work at Miami, and so this was a great experience for me to remember why I am here.
Let me give you some context: as a White woman, I never really expected to feel so passionately about racial oppression. But once I came to terms with the reality that oppression that doesn’t live in the hearts of individuals, but in the systemic inequities, there was no turning back. I knew that the rest of my life would be full of conversations about this concept we call “White Privilege.” As I said before, there are so many different ways that a person can have or not have privilege. Students of color are one of many demographics that have to think about things that the average Miami student doesn’t. For example, Black students are sometimes the only member of their race in any given classroom.
Although this topic is much too deep to delve into in this context, I am proud to say that I work at a university that holds seminars just so that we can get together and talk about what it means to be privileged and what it means to be oppressed. And we generate conversation about how we can be better allies as we continue to educate our constituents.
Miami is a university that continues the conversation about inequity. When it came time for me to choose a job, I knew Miami was a good choice because of opportunities like this one. When it comes time for you to choose a college, I hope you remember that Miami is a university that values education that will help change our students and our world.