An Interesting Discussion

This last week I got to talk to a professor at Kansas State University, and we had an interesting discussion about both of our experiences when it comes to race and intersectionality.

Her name is Professor Keisha Clark. She currently teaches classes pertaining to American Ethnic Studies and I am really glad I got to sit down and talk with her for a little while!

She told me about her experience as a black woman living and teaching at K-State. She said that thankfully she has never had to worry about her personal safety while on campus--something many others in similar positions cannot say. While this is true, she has had to face the numerous negative assumptions that people make about her because she is a woman of color. People always approach her like she's at a deficit to them. This could be that they assume she is not as educated as she really is or she doesn't hold a prestigious/respectable job.

Race has always affected her life, but she didn't always know it. It really came into play in her 20s when she had her daughter. Her daughter is more light-skinned, which was not expected because Professor Clark has a dark complexion and her husband has an even darker complexion. This leads to people assuming they are not related to each other. She also noted that it wasn't until this time that she expanded her knowledge of racism beyond individual cases and learned more about systemic and institutional racism.

In her home, racism is pretty openly discussed between her, her husband, and her daughter. She made some interesting comments about her husband. They sometimes have racial arguments because with her husband's limited knowledge about topics regarding race and the fact that he is a male, he argues certain malformed points and is unaware of how unaware he really is. This dynamic is vastly different from her adolescent days. Her mom never really discussed race with her and actually decided to shield her from it in some instances.

Professor Clark began her studies in human sexuality but ended up gravitating towards race studies and she has found in many cases people are afraid to talk about race, class, intersectionality and other similar topics because they think she is ready to attack them for the beliefs they hold. Consequently, they unfortunately refrain from discussion entirely.

This lack of discussion and understanding can have some scary and unintended consequences. For instance, Professor Clark recalled a time when she was pulled over with her white boyfriend in the car.  The police officer made some comments insinuating they were not a couple and that she was possibly a prostitute instead. She flicked a cigarette out of the car window while the officer was talking to her boyfriend and the officer reacted by pulling a gun on her. I can hardly believe this story because of how extremely the officer reacted to a simple cigarette and threatening someone's life because of his own preconceived notions of the situation.

She identifies as an asexual, cis, black, able-bodied female veteran. All of these labels affect her in one way or another, but some impact her life more often and in more significant ways than others. The fact that she is an asexual cis woman removes many barriers and allows her to escape most hardships and/or discrimination from these aspects. Being a female in the military did present some challenges for her, she acknowledged that she was very fortunate that she was first of all able to join the military in the first place and that the GI Bill helped pay for her education.

Overall I learned so much for our conversation and I'm glad that I not only got to hear Professor Clark's perspective on all of these topics, but that she was also willing to hear my opinions and experiences too. I hope that I would get the opportunity to have this kind of conversation again with more people in the future.