I digress. So yeah, ship life is not much different from other campuses. However, this one particular day, February 27th, we had an assimilation that is worthy of blog mention. We were heading for South Africa and learning about the apartheid that occurred there for the last 300 years. The faculty and the Diversity Club decided to create a ship apartheid: those with privilege were those who shaved their heads while those who were discriminated against were those who had hair. It is a visible characteristic, just as race was to the South Africans. And percentage was similar – about 10% whites/Baldies and 90% blacks/Hairs.
Only those with shaved heads could:
1. use the elevator
2. lay out on the top deck
3. eat in the Aquamarine 6 deck Dinning Hall
4. use any computer or exercise machine whenever they wanted
5. use the faculty lounge
6. eat during snack time
7. drink during pub-time
The Voice announced it after Global Studies and initially I thought I was hilarious. I had no hair, I could do whatever I wanted. So Jayme and I went to the gym and I didn’t have to sign up for a machine. At lunch, I didn’t have to wait on a long line for food, and there were TONS of seats outside on the deck. Normally you have to give up your first born for a chair. Andrea, Dan, Wendy, Kevin, Tim and myself enjoyed our quiet lunch in the sun (after applying sunscreen on our bald heads, of course.) There are members of the diversity club at the entrance of every privileged area, with red tags to prove their authority. I found Kat and we decided to go to the Faculty Lounge (which is gorgeous and quiet) and we were sitting and gossiping and Kyle sat with us and we got into a discussion about the assimilation. He is bald but was very negative about it; saying that a lot of people were not understanding that it is for only one day. He claimed that a lot of girls were complaining about how they couldn’t lay out and were making fun of girls with shaved heads. They were taking it as a personal attack and called it “discrimination.” (hahah that’s funny)
Anywho, there was rumor going around that there was going to be a protest outside of the Aquamarine Dinning Hall. Caitlin asked me to join, and I didn’t because I was given a role in this assimilation and was going to stick to it. Before my class, I was sitting in the lounge and one girl with Hair came up to me and said “They won’t let me into the dinning hall to get some water – would you mind going in there to get some?” I did, then a few more girls asked me. Desmond Tutu spoke in my class and someone asked him what he felt about the assimilation. He said it was a good learning experience. At 5:30, Kat and I went to dinner and had to step over people sitting in front of the entrance of the dinning hall. They were chanting “End Apartheid Now!” In response, the Baldies chanted back “Shave or Behave!” Some Hairs started to walk past the Police and take food. One of the boys took scissors and said “Now we have to cut your hair!” They kept teasing her. The Police were getting mad and started threatening them. After dinner, I took a nap then went to Pub Night with Kat. Normally, there is about a half hour long line to get a drink – but because only 10% of the ship could go there was no line. Crystal and I danced around like loons then got snacks. Our friend Catie with hair came to the top deck and we sang peaceful songs. One professor came up and spoke to us about the day and her presence in a Privileged Area. Eventually everything died down and I just hung out in the Lounge.
Now – the day was just so interesting just because there were so many different views. I think the assimilation was a good activity; however it could have been handled differently. I kind of wish that they never made an announcement and there were just signs not allowing Hairs into rooms and sanctions enforcing these rules. Then some people would have taken it seriously. The protest and sit-in were not bad; because during the real apartheid, that is what a lot of blacks did. However, they were shot by police or thrown into jail. They maybe could have threatened with dock time. Some people took the whole thing too seriously: pissed at SAS for not letting them go where they want, saying things like “I pay 18,000 dollars to live here so I can go where I want.” Yes but you also pay $18,000 to allow the ship to teach you lessons and to learn from them. And you were not deprived of necessities, and it was for one day, just one day to learn. The thing about the assimilation was that everyone was told “This is what we’re doing and this is how you are going to be treated. This will continue for one day.” But the real apartheid, officials claimed that they WERE being equal and it lasted a lot longer. Obviously the assimilation could never near the pain caused by the apartheid – however so many people aboard this ship (including myself) are so spoiled. The ship is so opulent, and modern. So when we get off into these poor ports, it doesn’t sink in because we go back to this lavish life upon our ship where we are waited on hand and foot. For a day, it was almost necessary to take away a little bit of most people’s privilege. With any lesson in life…some people will learn while some will complain. So I just hope that most took something positive away from it.
Personally, I learned a few lessons: How just because I was privileged by chance, I was hated against and that made it easy to abuse that privilege. Also, when the Hairs were complaining about the Police, my response was “they are just doing their job.” Then I took a step back and thought back to my protests, and thought of my hatred for the police. Granted, some cops are seriously assholes, but to make the assumption that all are scum is pure arrogance and ignorance. And I do that. It was humbling.
We talk a lot about privilege on the ship – basically because everyone on this ship is white, middle class and have higher education. But talking to one woman, a Life Long Learner (adults living on the boat,) she made a good point: we keep talking about what privilege is and why have it. But no one ever mentions what we should DO with it. With this privilege comes a responsibility – to spread the things we have to the rest of the world. And sometimes – most of the time – that is forgotten. Just because I was lucky, and born into this life of societal perfection (which it truly is) doesn’t mean I should just sit and hog it up. And I sit here – preaching that I want to help the world and I am ready to start my life of altruism…when I could be doing beneficial things at every moment of the day. I just need to start keeping that in the back of my mind (or in better terms – the front of my mind) and with every step, live it.
Infinite xo’s amandapanda
PS – For those who are interested – I had a spiritual epiphany in religion class the other day. It’s personal but let me just say to those who care – that I am getting closer and closer to finding my soul and my reason for being here – my Personal Legend, if you will. And closer, I suppose, to finding God, or Nirvana, or Brahmin…just something bigger than myself.
2 comments:
Hey, I love this entry. Have you ever heard of the Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes study? It was started in the 50s by a 2nd grade teacher, I think. She separated the class by eye color and told them that one eye color was better than the other and put all of these restrictions on the lesser eye color, like no recess and no drinking fountain. The students with the "bad" eye color did terribly in school that day and had all sorts of behavior problems. The next day, she switched the eye colors. The same thing happened. The students that did well the day before did terribly the day after, just because she told them they weren't as good as some of the other people. I think that was a great exercise and a great learning experience in how, even when people know that the activity isn't "real" and isn't going to last, they begin to feel oppressed and they start to demand their rights. It doesn't matter that they don't act like that normally. When they're told they're not as worthy as other people, they get angry about it, and in large groups, they take it seriously. I think it's good that those people took it too seriously. It's a great example of knowing that you're not really affected by something and still having it bother you.
You should check out my NY pictures on Facebook! I had such a wonderful time there.
I'm really excited to hear about your spiritual epiphany :) I was recently sitting in my molecular biology class where we were learning about genomic differences between members of the same species... Your genome is 99.98% identical to mine -- that translates to 99.9999% identicality in nucleotide base pairs. So basically, out of everyone 1 million nucleotides, there's only one difference -- and that's what makes you different from me. So only a handful of differences -- and the differences are only a few atoms each time -- create the incredible diversity among our species. I thought that was incredible... there's def something bigger than me. If only a grand design to the universe... I, of course, have my own convictions, but still. To the unbeliever, how can you not see the beauty?
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