{"id":1989,"date":"2019-06-13T11:01:36","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T15:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/?p=1989"},"modified":"2019-06-13T11:01:37","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T15:01:37","slug":"how-comfortable-am-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/how-comfortable-am-i\/","title":{"rendered":"How Comfortable Am I?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Samantha Ribler<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I was handed a survey in one of my morning classes. Its title was \u201cHow Comfortable Am I?\u201d and it asked the survey-taker about how comfortable they would be in social situations with supposedly differing people; people such as math tutors or exotic dancers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tMore than anything I was confused– the survey was completely unrelated to the subject matter of the class. What was even stranger was that my teacher insisted we talk about our answers and spend the period discussing. Most students did not hold back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tQuestion 15 on the survey read as follows: \u201cThe young man sitting next to you on the airplane is Arab.\u201d The question left my teacher\u2019s mouth and I thought for a fact that everyone would be on the same page. However, when I heard a loud voice say \u201cnot if it was right after 9\/11\u201d followed by \u201cyou can never be too sure\u201d from another, my heart dropped into my stomach. Question 19 read: \u201cThe woman sitting next to you on a plane weighs 250 lbs.\u201d This was followed by another loud response: \u201cI don\u2019t wanna sit next to a fat girl.\u201d Question 36: \u201cOne of your group presentation members has a speech impediment.\u201d Once again, I felt sick: \u201cI\u2019ll just be the one that does the talking.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tMy classmates\u2019 responses were so shocking and disgusting that I would laugh out loud. I constantly looked around the room to see if I could find just one person who was having a similar reaction to mine and was terrified to find out that I was alone– I felt trapped. I had the urge to do something and since my classmates weren\u2019t being reprimanded for sharing such strong \u201copinions,\u201d I assumed there would be no issue with me sharing mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tQuestion 18 was simple: \u201cYour new roommate is gay.\u201d However, this question caused an uproar from the class; many said that they wouldn\u2019t be comfortable with it because they wouldn\u2019t want to be perceived as gay themselves. This is when I finally worked up the courage to speak out: \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that people are scared of being seen as gay as if it\u2019s a bad thing to be perceived as.\u201d My teacher stopped me and informed me that this was supposed to be an opportunity to share our own opinion and not to shoot anybody down. Clearly, my teacher has an issue with any other side of the argument. Mind you, moments later, this same teacher had no issue mentioning that the victims involved in the \u201c#MeToo\u201d movement were \u201cnaive\u201d to \u201cfall for\u201d the manipulations of Harvey Weinstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tSo how comfortable am I? I\u2019m not comfortable at all. In fact, I\u2019m far from it. However, I have been able to find comfort in what I believe is the root of the problem; ACPS has preached about its diversity since before some of us were even a thought and I, along with many others, have been convinced that this diversity makes us more accepting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leads me to my question: are we using the privilege of having diversity for good? Our mixing-pot student body is made to look like a community from the outside, however, it\u2019s clear as day that there are plenty of students who aren\u2019t educated on cultures and identities outside of their own. If you think about it, ACPS will only address our diversity when persuading onlookers that this is a wholesome environment. So of course, the difficulties we face today have been hidden in the shadows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to notice the edging tensions in the T.C. hallways or walk into the the lunchroom and see divisions. It\u2019s easy to realize that there are places where you\u2019re welcome and places that you\u2019re not. It\u2019s time for a change; it\u2019s time for everyone to pay attention and accept who the Titans really are.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was handed a survey in one of my morning classes. Its title was \u201cHow Comfortable Am I?\u201d and it asked the survey-taker about how comfortable they would be in social situations with supposedly differing people; people such as math tutors or exotic dancers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-submissions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2018-2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}