#tbt that one anth prof who was like who can think of an example of a ritual whose only intention is to show off wealth & status? [crickets]

[torahtot]

so it's the last digital media & society class of the semester and the prof is not coming back next year so she decided instead of a final we'll do a fun activity. i show up to class & she's fiddling with some VR headsets. (irrelevant sidenote this prof has a track record of making us do unhygienic or just gross stuff like all play games on one person's laptop, multiple person thumb war [i had to thumb war 4 sweaty jocks at the same time last class], & her weird insistence that we stand very close with our shoulders touching while we play telephone despite that not being necessary for the game. so i knew we would be taking turns wearing the same VR headsets without cleaning them in between)

anyways she starts the class by showing us this TED talk by a black woman who created a VR experience of racism. i thought it was a powerful talk & i liked it although i was a little weirded out at the concept of white people LARPing as black to understand racism better. well. you will never guess what happened next

for context as of 2021 my college was almost 73% white and in this class of around 25 there are only 2 black girls and maybe like 2 other POC. the professor is asian. guess what class we r actually going to do this VR experience!! anyone who doesn't feel comfortable doesn't have to as this can be very traumatic :))

we got put into groups so one person from each group could do 1 of the 4 simulations and i ended up sitting right next to the group that one of the black girls was in. the prof goes up and asks who in that group wants to do the simulations (something i dont think she asked the groups that did not have black students), someone offers to go first & the black girl passive-aggressively says she'll do it too. prof does not respond just continues walking around smiling like a fucking idiot like she doesn't know full well what she's doing. after their group is done she asks for feedback on how it was. white girl is tripping over herself trying to explain how the VR didn't really change anything bc she already knows these things happen & are bad but obviously she feels very bad that this happens & it's not okay and wow i just wanted the floor to swallow me up i couldnt handle it. the black girl is visibly upset & prof continues to do nothing.

after that girl said her piece i told the prof that even tho i hadnt done the VR yet, just the fact that we're doing this already taught me something because it's a very clear example of how many of our experiences are catered to white people which is something that can be easy not to realize when it isn't literally a case of something made for white people being offered to a class that has black students who do not need it & are being insanely marginalized bc of it. we wouldn't be doing this if a significant portion of the class was black & would potentially opt not to participate. i had to repeat this 3 times bc she wasn't understanding. then i said we wouldn't be doing this if our class wasn't extremely white & she just went yeah, absolutely :D

after the other black student went she told the prof how it didnt change anything for her because she experiences real racism not virtual & she explained more of how in high school they were taught how to prepare to enter a predominantly white space. she was being really nice & sweet & she's kind of shy in general so the prof still was not getting the point that this girl is trying to tell her she's insane for doing this. meanwhile the white jocks doing the VR are laughing and saying it's dumb, the girl who was sitting near me is getting more and more upset & almost left the room. prof never said anything when class was over she was just like bye have a great summer!!1 this was so normal and great and educational😊 when i tell u i was fuming

had the most insane class today i cannot process that it was real