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Student Commencement Speech 1990
Christine Bicknell
Josephine Butler was an Englishwoman of the nineteenth
century and a major contributor to the British feminist
movement. Her struggle for justice focused on an attempt to
repeal the Contagious Diseases Act of 1869. This was an act
which tried to curb the spread of venereal disease among
prostitutes by allowing the police to stop any woman on the
street, take her to the station and give her a physical exam
that would account for her state of health. This violation
of women's rights affected all English women. Where
previously, the middle class women's economic status
shielded them from the humiliation that women of lower
economic classes experienced, suddenly they were at risk of
being affected by this law in the same way. Josephine Butler
recognized that this violation which assaulted the humanity
of one group of women, in turn assaulted the humanity of all
women. Through her struggle to repeal the law, Josephine
Butler intended to show her middle class peers that the
oppression of one group of women was equal to the oppression
of all women. In a speech before her contemporaries, she
said:
"Womanhood is solidaire. We cannot
successfully evaluate the standard of public opinion in the
matter of justice to women, and of equality of all in its
truest sense, if we are content that a practical, hideous,
calculated, manufactured, and legally maintained degradation
of a portion of womanhood is allowed to go on before the
eyes of all. 'Remember them that are in bonds, as being
bound with them.' Even if we lack the sympathy which makes
us feel that the chains which bind our enslaved sisters are
pressing on us also, we cannot escape the fact that we are
one womanhood, solidaire, and that as long as they are
bound, we cannot be wholly and truly free."
Butler's notion of womanhood as solidaire (solidaire
being a community of interests, objectives or standards) was
radical for the time, because in a society that divided
women into separate classes and made them see. Themselves
opposition to each other, it was unheard of for someone,
especially in opposition to woman, to suggest that these
separations might not be valid. The example of Josephine
Butler may seem irrelevant to us, especially as members of
institution committed to the education of diverse women, but
I believe we have a lot to learn. from Ms. Butler's example.
Butler said -- "Even if we lack the sympathy which makes
us feel the chains which bind our enslaved sisters are
pressing on us also, we cannot escape the fact that we are
one womanhood, solidaire, and that so long as they are
bound, we cannot be wholly and truly free." Like Butler, I
feel it is important to remind ourselves that the oppression
of any part of society in some way oppresses the whole. This
is important to remember when in many points in our lives,
the privilege of race and class make it easy to overlook the
harm being done to people around us. Butler was speaking to
white, upper middle class women, and she was telling them
that privilege does not erase responsibility. In fact,
having privilege requires a person to be more responsible. I
am speaking to you, a more diverse group of women, but the
message remains the same.
What, you may ask, defines privilege? In some ways, all
of us here today are privileged. We have had the privilege
of a first rate education in one of our country's finest
institutions. We also have been privileged to have been
educated in a place that focuses on women. Many of us also
have had privilege based on the color of our skin. In a
country whose foundations are based on unequal relations
between the races, white Americans have the advantage of not
having to deal with the life long discrimination that
Americans of color face. In her working paper "'White
Privilege and Male Privilege," Peggy McIntosh describes
white privilege as, "an invisible package of unearned assets
which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I
was meant to remain oblivious." (p.1) She speaks extensively
about white privilege and reminds us that although
"privilege may confer power it does not confer moral
strength." (p.12) She tells us that "power from unearned
privilege can look like strength when it is in fact
permission to escape or dominate." (p.13) It is power from
unearned privilege" that we as women must be aware of as we
head into the world beyond Wellesley College. This unearned
power does not come from race alone. Those of us who are
economically privileged also have advantages of which we may
be unaware. Not to have to worry about how you will pay next
month's phone bill, or where next semester's tuition will
come from, gives one a security that not everyone has.
Heterosexual men and women also have "unearned privilege."
No one questions their lifestyle or discriminates against
them because of their choice of living partners. The point
is that all "unearned privilege" must be recognized and seen
as being in operation in order for change to occur. We must
remember, as Belle Hooks reminds us, that all of us, all
races and both genders possess the ability to be oppressors
as well as the vulnerability to be the oppressed.
More than anything I want to stress that I think dealing
with our own privilege and prejudice is a continual process.
There is never a point when any one of us can say, "There,
I've got it. 1 no longer need to worry about prejudice in my
life." There are always ways to change one's outlook and
improve one's understanding of other people. To cease the
struggle to understand ourselves and the society we live in
is to cease to live in a responsible way. I know that I have
not completely overcome my prejudices. I am on my journey to
more wisdom and understanding just as all of you are. But
the key is to realize that while our heritage or our
economic position or our attitudes may condemn us to be part
of the problem, we can actively choose to seek justice and
thereby become part of creating and enacting the solution.
Institutions share this responsibility as well, and
Wellesley has begun to take the challenge to look at itself
more critically in regard to these issues. It is only
because I love Wellesley and value it as a place where
discourse occurs and where we are not afraid to look
carefully at our strengths and weaknesses that I feel it is
essential to examine issues of racism and discrimination on
campus.
One of Wellesley's strengths is the emphasis it places on
community. The concept of community is an essential part of
the Wellesley ethos, and we work hard here to encourage and
build a community of women that encompasses everyone. But
Wellesley needs to ask itself whose community is really
being built here? Which women does Wellesley foster, and on
whom does she focus her energies? We would like to think
that Wellesley focuses on all women, but that would not be
the most truthful answer. We have many difficult obstacles
to overcome in making Wellesley a truly integrated place.
Yes, we are diverse -- there are women here who a represent
a myriad of nationalities, races, religions, ethnicities and
classes. But, it is not our demographic plurality that
reflects our true diversity. To measure the depth of our
true "multiculturalism," we must look elsewhere.
For all of our recent attempts to combat racism and to
"really understand each other," Wellesley has some deep
roots that are difficult to overcome. Wellesley College was
founded with the intent of educating women of diverse
backgrounds, but given the social realities of the time, and
its location, it is most realistic to accept that Wellesley
was, and still is a predominantly "white" institution. But,
there are many tangible things that the college can do, and
that we can do as alumnae to make this a more multicultural
community.
The Task Force on Racism, as well as first year ICAN
workshops and other student sparked movements such as the
Teach-In and the "Do The Right Thing" discussion represent
honest attempts at communication on campus. Through them we
will continue to learn new ways to lessen racism on campus
and faster a more inclusive multicultural vision at
Wellesley. The new "multicultural" requirement for all
students, and the college's commitment to hiring more
minority faculty are just two ways Wellesley is continuing
its work in this area. I think that another way to improve
real understanding and communication among students would be
to expand the arts program at Wellesley. While I was away on
twelve-college exchange, 1 had the chance to experience an
arts program that included more non-Western forms of music
and dance. West African dance and drumming are two popular
offerings at my host school, and I think their existence
adds greatly to its curriculum. By expanding our dance,
Music and theatre programs to include more non-Western art
forms, Wellesley could help students experience other
cultures in a profound manner. One of the dangers of
privilege is the ability to let other cultures go
unrecognized, but by adding these types of classes to
Wellesley's curriculum we would be validating important
subjects too long unrecognized by traditional academic
canon.
While attending Wellesley, all of us here today had the
opportunity to take the Black Studies courses, Asian studies
courses, Latin American Studies courses and many at-her
offerings that challenged us intellectually. Hopefully none
of us is leaving Wellesley without having taken advantage of
these opportunities. We leave Wellesley much poorer if we
have not taken seriously our responsibility to learn about
each other. The privilege and empowerment that we have
gained from our Wellesley education obligates us not only to
recognize injustice but also to work toward dismantling it.
The idea of womanhood as solidaire is important in making
us realize our similarities despite our differences, but it
would be a grave mistake to assume that we all have common
agendas, either publicly or privately. As. women of various
races, classes and ethnicities we have differences that are
important to maintaining and affirming our cultural heritage
and strengthening our personal identities. The key to
finding the places where we connect as people, as women, and
as individuals is through dialogue and communication with
each other. Mutual attempts at understanding are essential
for everyone, and at Wellesley it is all of our
responsibility to move beyond the comfortable limits of this
college and this town in order to learn more about other
people around us.
It is difficult to turn a truly critical eye toward
Wellesley and ourselves, but honest analysis and continual
challenge are the only ways to make progress. A friend once
wrote to me, "...most of the world is scared to death to
look at who they are... and will resent you for looking and
holding up the mirror to them in which they see their
fearfulness, not your strength." Let us hope that in our
years after Wellesley, we can have the courage to continue
to look at who we are and deal with the difficult issues
that confront our lives. I believe that we are strong women,
well educated women, women who have a commitment to
bettering the world in which we live, and I believe we will
meet the challenges '"hat the world holds for us. And so, I
would like to conclude with an excerpt from a powerful poem
by Marge Piercy entitled "For Strong Women":
"A strong woman is a woman who loves
strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly
terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong
in words, in action, in connection, in feeling;
she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf
suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she
enacts it as the wind fills a sail.
What comforts her is others loving her equally for
the strength and for the weakness
from which it issues, lightning from a cloud.
Lightning stuns. In rain, the clouds disperse.
Only water of connection remains,
flowing through us. Strong is what we make
each other. Until we are all strong together,
a strong woman is strongly afraid."
Thank you and God bless!
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CHRISTINE BICKNELL STUDENT COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER
A native of Yarmouth, Maine, Chris Bicknell is an
American Studies/Spanish double major. During her four years
at Wellesley, she has been active in the Shakespeare
Society; Experimental Theatre; Newman Ministry; and was
co-president of this year's newly formed American Studies
Club. She has been a member of the College's field hockey
team and this year served as a Resident Advisor. She plans
to stay in Boston, working this summer as assistant to the
director of "Exploration," a program held for junior high
and high school students each year on the Wellesley College
campus, and plans to pursue a career in publishing next
fall.
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