Warning: This is largely a (not fully formed) think piece that is a reaction to Black Lives Matter and what goes in the world of Pop Punk music.<\/p>\n
Most of this past year, I have reflected deeply about finding my voice on tough subject matters. It all started some time last year as a lot of turmoil hit my favorite genre of music and accusations were coming out left and right about sexual misconduct by band members in the genre. As I read more about the subject, I found myself reading more and more articles and opinion pieces from female writers. A lot of the problems in this genre of music were ones that I would never have to face, and I thought it would be best to listen to other voices that actually had experienced these issues. All during this time, I found myself being an observer of what was going on, trying to listen to more opinions of people who weren’t like me. But all the same, not doing much besides educating myself.<\/p>\n
As the year progressed, I actually found myself visiting a friend in St. Louis on the one year anniversary of Michael Brown’s passing as protests were breaking out again. Given this newly found view on how to tackle matters, I started to try to understand better the Black Lives Matter movement and what living in America is like for a black individual. I read more articles from black writers, listened to black artists on the matter. All throughout my time at Richmond, I’ve been learning about systems of oppression that keep blacks in poverty and incarcerated. I’ve also gotten to see these systems firsthand as a Bonner Scholar. But I had never spent a lot of time actually learning about what the black experience is like. I’m not going to pretend at all like I’m even well educated on the matter, but I think we owe it to each other to let other voices be heard and to learn what each other’s experiences are like.<\/p>\n
So reading all of that, you’re probably left wondering what this has to do with global governance. It has everything to do with global governance. I think in order to be a global citizen, we need to start listening to voices that don’t sound like our own. We need to hear opinions that we don’t always agree with. We need to challenge our own opinions and beliefs intentionally in order to think through what our stance on any given global issue is. The challenge that I am now at is what do I do with my stance on an issue. Do I speak it out loud and share with everyone? Or do I keep it to myself because other voices too similar to mine are already way too loud even if my opinion differs from theirs? How do I lift up voices that should be heard but aren’t? Should I carry myself differently in a classroom environment than in conversations outside the classroom? What do I do with the privilege I have just because of my identity? I’m still figuring all of this out and haven’t decided what to do with my voice just yet, but I’m learning more each day and I think that started by choosing what goes into my news and social media feed. Am I just in an echo chamber or am I intentionally listening to voices different from mine. I’ll leave this with one of my favorite quotes\u00a0from this past year about tackling tough issues.<\/p>\n
\n“When you feel tempted to speak for and over communities that you aren\u2019t a part of, remember this: if you play devil\u2019s advocate when you look like the devil in question, you cannot expect anyone to be able to tell the difference.” – Anna Acosta<\/h2>\n
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