Sarah Miller

URBN 371
Dr. Arloa Sutter
12/10/2015

Final Reflection Paper

This semester has opened my eyes and expanded my thinking in ways that I have

yet to fully realize and can only begin to articulate. This paper will attempt to explain

some of the ways in which I have grown as a result of my experience studying race,

poverty, and reconciliation.

In a very general sense, I have learned a great deal about my own privilege and

the ways that I benefit from things that I havent necessarily earned. One of the ways

Ive started to understand my privilege is by viewing it in two ways: first, the way that

my outward appearance affects the way I move through the world, the way I am treated,

and the way I expect to be viewed by others. Second: the opportunities, education,

upbringing, social networks, and other intangible factors that have propelled me to a

place of socioeconomic advantage, influence, and mobility.

One new understanding that I reached relates to my status as a white female.

During the Christian Community Development Association Conference, I attended a

seminar workshop where I learned about the unique struggle faced by African-American

women. While I consider myself generally well informed on womens and feminist

issues, I was extremely surprised to find that I had been mostly in the dark about an entire

demographic affected by the intersectionality of being underprivileged in terms of both

race and gender. I realized that even in a movement that I believed to be uplifting,
empowering, and working on behalf of all women, the collective group has actually

largely ignored the particularity of African-American womens troubles. These struggles

include unique mental and physical health issues, an oppressive stereotype that demands

constant strength, support, and resilience, and many others.

I realized that if I had engaged the feminism movement with greater awareness of

my own privilege, then I might have been quicker to realize that being a gender minority

did not preclude my white privilege from elevating me even within that socially

subordinated group. In the future, I hope to continue learning about womanism (the social

theory that developed as a reaction to the whitewashed nature of feminism) and help to

be a voice and advocate for all women, regardless of race or ethnicity. Beyond that, I

want to especially elevate and attend to the voices of African-American women within

the movement, in order to avoid perpetuating a feminist version of the all lives matter

rhetoric that developed as a response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Like many of my classmates, a great deal of my learning occurred in the spaces

between the classroom and daily life. My internship experience was one of those spaces. I

spent the semester interning in the showroom of a high-end fashion company, where I

became ever-increasingly aware of the implications of my privilege through activities

such as my daily commute, my interactions with clients, and my relationships with the

showroom staff. The learning that occurred in classroom discussions and reading was

emphasized and nuanced through these experiences. I think that this semester will be

particularly impactful towards my future, because I intend to pursue a career somewhere

within the fashion industry. For a long time, this was an area of tension and conflict for

me because Im fairly well aware of the way the high fashion and luxury industries are
maintained by exclusivity and privilege. A question that I wrestled with throughout this

semester was, how do I reconcile my passions and gifts in fashion with the deep sense of

duty and compassion I feel towards those affected by racial and socioeconomic injustice?

I was surprised to find that, more than anything, this semester confirmed the sense

of calling I feel to enter the fashion industry. Equipped with a renewed understanding and

sensitivity towards marginalized communities, I believe that I can truly be an agent of

change and transformation in my future workplace and its surrounding culture. Seeing

people like Terry Truax working from positions of power and influenceand leveraging

that power on behalf of vulnerable people and communitieswas deeply encouraging to

me. It renewed the sense of drive and determination I feel to succeed in my career, so that

I might someday have a platform and position from which to advocate for and amplify

the voices of the people who are largely shut out from the industry itself.

A few practical issues that I became aware of include the underrepresentation and

misrepresentation of certain minority groups in the fashion industry. While minorities are

certainly present in the fashion industryin the sense that they are disproportionately

affected by the unfair wages and labor conditions by which much of the capitalist system

is able to functionthey rarely occupy positions of visibility, power, and influence. One

example is the modeling industry. Of the nearly 5,000 looks shown at New York Fashion

Week for Fall/Winter 2014, approximately 80% of those were worn by white models.1

The disparity is even greater in design: Of the 260 shows scheduled for Fall/Winter 2015,

only three with any global reach were showcasing work by African-American designers,

1
Dries, K., 2014. New York fashion week: diversity talks, but white faces walk.
Jezebel.
and of the 470 members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, only 12 are

African-American.2

In The New Jim Crow, we learned that racism is adaptableit transforms as

society changes, taking on new rules, language, and rhetoric that functionally maintains

the same effects as those perpetuated by the more overt discrimination and laws of earlier

generations. I believe that the fashion industry is sadly functioning as an extension of

white supremacyaffirming the talents, beauty, skills, and purchasing power of the

wealthy, white majority, and largely ignoring, silencing, and misrepresenting the equally

valuable minority. I have become increasingly angered and disappointed by this fact over

the course of this semester. I want to be part of the force that changes it. True racial

reconciliation and socioeconomic justice will never be possible until all spheres of human

life are penetrated by truth and justicethe fashion industry is one place where I can

begin.

Another thing that convicted me this semester was the realization that, as a person

with a voice in the majority, I have the responsibility to help educate, inform, and

influence others like me to understand what I have been able to see this semester.

Minority groups shouldnt have to keep trying to make their voices be heard among an

ignorant, stubborn majority. I can (and must) use my privilege to help their stories be

listened to, to amplify their voices, and to speak truth to the powers among which I

function on a daily basis. Going forward, this is a duty that will affect everything from

conversations with friends and what I choose to post on Facebook to questions I raise in

class and protests or demonstrations I choose to participate in. Justice must become a way

2
Friedman, V., 2015. Fashions racial divide. The New York Times.
of thinking, speaking, living, and loving in order to begin to cultivate a state of shalom

for all people.