Appreciating the ikki things in life.

So I had a Bro in my class last year who had some pretty problematic views. And, as is often the case with baby freshmen, I don’t think they were really his views, they were just regurgitations of family/friends views from his small southern town. When he said racist/homophobic/etc. things in papers, I would be careful to question the source of his information/the reason behind an assertion rather than attack him directly. “Can you prove this?” “I don’t think this is statistically true, but here’s a link so you can check for yourself–let me know if I’m wrong!” “Why do you think this? Have you personally experienced this?” etc. It’s kind of amazing the changes that can occur over the course of 5 months with a little gentle urging to reconsider where ideology comes from, but then he came back and took another course with me the following semester, and not only did his writing continue to improve exponentially but he actually chose to write a final paper about gender roles that was deeply introspective and A+ work (the assignment was to use any form of theory to critically approach any film–he chose feminist theory and Mad Max: Fury Road). Anyway, I still see him occasionally on campus but hadn’t really spoken to him in several months, when I got an email last night (early this morning?). He was clearly a little drunk, but very earnestly asking for advice. Apparently, there was a party at his fraternity and (NOT one of his bros, he was emphatic about this) a guy pulled off a girl’s hijab. He and a friend threw the guy out and then he let the girl upstairs so she could use a more private bathroom to re-pin her headscarf, she rejoined the party, and a good time was had by all. However, post-party, he was thinking about the events of the night and suddenly wondering if he did the right thing. Was it bad that he had seen her hair? Should he have found a girl to go upstairs with her instead? He knew they had a mutual friend, should he ask the mutual friend for the girl’s number and apologize? Or would that be creepy? Her hair was really pretty. He probably shouldn’t mention that, right? He offered her a beer but she doesn’t drink so he brought her a Sprite instead. Did he insult her when he offered her a beer? She didn’t seem insulted but he was confused and drunk (and very sweet) and wanted my advice because he “figured [I] probably knew about this stuff right?” I responded, thanking him for doing the right thing, told him that it sounded like he handled the issue well and gave him some pointers for if something similar happened again (yes, send a girl with her next time), as well as a couple links to general resources about Western hijab use and basics about Halal vs. Haraam (I also told him that, regardless of religion, if you want to talk to someone who hasn’t given you their number, it’s usually best to ask the mutual friend to give them your contact information to avoid the creepy-factor. Then they can choose to talk to you or not).

Guild: -chilly silence-

President: so the challenge to you all is a quilt with your interpretation and/or feelings towards our current “democracy”

Guild: 👏👏👏

How I spent my July 4th.

At the start I thought stitching “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” for the last quarter would be therapeutic

I was correct.