When I reflect on my Wesleyan experience, I realize that much of it has been tailored around major societal movements. I am comparing the research I am conducting this year and my creation of DEI 2.0. Race has been a universally heated topic of discussion, especially in wake of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and videos of police brutality. These events have forced me to critically evaluate my positionality and privilege,  leading me to pursue psychology.

Psychology has always predicated itself on the fundamental understanding of human cognition. Yet, it has historically perpetuated false narratives regarding the racialized experiences of minority communities; it has used white, heterosexual, normative experiences to represent a shared collective experience. Much of our conceptualization of the world has much to do with socialization, empathy, and simple conversation. Yet, what we gather from those instances informs our future interactions. 

When thinking about DEI, I wanted to reshape and reform how people talk about race. As a biracial man, I often feel like race conversations are forced, uncomfortable, and unnatural; my vision has always been to facilitate conversation in an organic way.

Enabling raw conversation surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion allows for empathy, compassion, and understanding beyond forced interaction and formal education. The neutrality of this approach ensures neither side feels forced or compelled to speak on their individual experiences.  Within the Psychology literature, I  pinpointed a term named Race-related stress.

These are transactions, between individuals or groups, within an environment that has emerged from dynamics of racism, specifically threatening the well-being of individuals within a community (Harrell, 2000, p. 45). For the many advances DEI has provided, it still places us within this construct of race-related stress.

Since undertaking this project, I have specifically focused on the Wesleyan Student of Color experience. This small subset of the population inhabits PWI spaces, and the journey of higher education mirrors the social climb in the workforce and in life. The higher you go, the fewer people look and identify with you. 

Since all students come from different walks of life; from socioeconomic status, familial structure, class, and privilege my justification is that this population is representative enough. I have been interested to see how all students of color understand and articulate their time while at university. Navigating PWIs as a student of color presents unique challenges (Smith et al., 2007).

Throughout my work on both DEI and my Psychological research, what I have found is that I’ve grown. I no longer see things on a linear trajectory, rather I see a spectrum of experiences, beliefs, and differences. In many respects, it’s more about experiences than actual learned content. 

We often wish to put things in boxes, to group experiences are one thing or another, yet we refuse to see them as separate events. We discredit the wealth of experience we have because it’s easier for a group than to ask yourself “What have I learned”.

I would say that in retrospect I have learned more about what it means to be biracial in the past year and a half than in the past twenty-something years of my life. It is crazy to think that my peers and professors have pushed me to grow in such a short time. I’d have to say it’s a perspective shift, once you shift your perspective, the world changes, your understanding changes, and you change!