Injustice Rant – By Seraphina Mallon-Breiman

Over the past few weeks on GMC’s campus, I have found myself taking part in active conversations on social injustice and oppression and feminism and understanding others views on such topics from very diverse groups. Some of my friends, Kim Blank, Shai O’Rourke, Krista Shugart and many other powerful young women and men recently lead a forum in the Gorge on feminism, masogony, and sexual assault and the issues students and individuals in general face in the world and on campuses everywhere. Over one hundred people showed up to the Gorge that night, equally fascinated in having this conversation and talking about how to solve the problems that we face today. After this night, I could not stop thinking about not only these issues, but the issues of inequality and oppression everywhere. 

 

Over the past hundred or so years, our culture and society has made incredible strides in creating a world that is concerned with equality. This collective human consciousness has been evolving for decades, yet we still constantly face oppression, injustice, and segregation every day. It is easy to be unaware of this fact, but the truth is that our world today is nowhere near the establishment of true equality. There has been an ingrained mindset of what a perfect person should resemble that has been handed down to us for centuries. This subtle truth is intertwined within the way we see African Americans, homosexuals, women, and even our biosphere, which encompasses so much non-human life. We have allowed an anthropocentric, small-minded and stubborn outlook to rule our culture’s belief of what is and isn’t acceptable. Many brave leaders and activists have represented or at least spoken up in the past to create a change for this mentality and I respect their courage, but at this time we must continue to be brave and move forward in this change-making process.

The choice in remaining silent after an understanding of this global injustice has been placed upon someone is unacceptable. Making the decision to be an activist, even in a small way such as leading a small, nearby community to act in a just way will make a huge difference, just like these women did in the Gorge.