We Must Speak Until Our Voices Are No Longer Needed

 I almost hate to admit it, but I've had moments over the past few months when the social justice messages flooding all of my web pages and social media started to feel like too much and I just wanted to shut it all out for a while.

Maybe you've had an experience like that too.

It's okay to feel weighed down or overwhelmed by all of it: the injustice, the opposing arguments, the lack of a clear and easy solution for all of the world's ills. It's a lot to take in.

The Message Is Important, Therefore We Must Speak It

In spite of our discussion exhaustion, the message of equality is so important. There is a reason that these discussions have been going on for decades – centuries, even.

Of course, the discourse seems more prevalent now than ever.

Perhaps it is because we have all been given a new platform through social media that simply could not be had before. Now, people who could never make their views known to the masses have a way to share their thoughts with communities of hundreds of people simultaneously and, if the online crowds should favor them, to make those messages goes viral.

Or maybe we are truly living in a time when awareness of inequality and the drive to change our society is more widespread.

I have a feeling that it is all of these things and more.

I think that what both of these things (the freedom to disseminate a message through new media, and the social setting saturated with ideologies of equality) point to is a long history of change that was fought for and won. It hints to the campaigning of women around the world to have the right to contribute to society in political, intellectual, and occupational spheres. It whispers of the long road to freedom walked by escaped slaves, protesters, and refugees looking for autonomy and opportunity.

When I get tired of hearing anti-racist or feminist arguments, it is not because I wish these discussions would go away. To the contrary, I feel exhausted by the amount of work that has been done to bring the movements so far, how slowly they've progressed, and how far they still have to go.

I don't ever want these messages to die out. They are so important, and they need to be heard.

The Argument for Intentional Awareness Perpetuating the Problem

Amongst the messages of awareness and efforts to achieve equity are those that say that drawing attention to these differences is not the answer.

"The best way to end racism is to stop talking about racial differences," they say. They argue that highlighting our visual differences only makes racism more common.

This same argument is used to call out university admission policies designed to ensure diversity within their programs. The criticism is that intentionally selecting a certain number of females, or BIPOC is more racist than blindly picking the best applicants (and that this will disadvantage better students due to the admissions spaces being taken up by "less qualified" individuals).

The truth is, pretending that racism or sexism does not exist will not solve the problem. The systems that our society has in place were often built to naturally disadvantage women and BIPOC. 

Let's break down how this works in university admissions: 

1. Middle class white families have the advantage of better education and community programs because of the neighbourhoods they live in and the money they make.
2. These credits and extracurricular activities meet all of the university's admissions criteria.
3. Meanwhile, BIPOC students may have had to help support their families from a young age, meaning that they had less opportunity for activities. Their families also can't always afford private school or activity fees.
4. This lack of better education and extracurricular involvement does not meet the admissions criteria.
5. Even if a BIPOC student qualifies for admissions, their family may not be able to afford post-secondary education, meaning that they never get the chance to apply or attend.

If race and sex were not acknowledged, if the struggles experienced because of these biological characteristics were no longer spoken about, the problems wouldn't be fixed.

But there is a good point being made here that we can't ignore: as long as we are still talking about things, it means that we still have a problem. We need to get to a point where we no longer need to speak about racial differences or gender differences in this way anymore.

Keep On Speaking Until Our Voices Are No Longer Needed

The reason we speak this message of social justice and equality is because there are people who have not heard and understood it. We speak because the fight is still ongoing.

Anyone who has a voice must to make this message known. If we stop talking about the issues and the causes, we will never be able to bring about the change that the world so desperately needs. No matter how small you may feel your voice is, never let it be silenced. Every voice, even mine, has the potential to reach someone. That is why I write.

And if we keep talking about this, then hopefully one day we will see a day when we genuinely don't need to speak this message anymore, when our voices can rest and make room for new voices to share new ideas with the world. If we continue to speak, my hope is that we can change our circumstances.

When that happens, then – and only then – should we stop talking about race and sex in the way we have been. On that day, talking about those differences will not make anyone "other"; it will simply make them human. It will make them like everyone else. Because we are all unique. And uniqueness should be celebrated.

But, until then, we must not stop talking about how our differences affect us. Not until the conversation becomes unnecessary. Not until we see all of humanity as our equals.