[AshleyO]

It's a class I'm taking this semester. It is a class from the gender studies department.

The class was ethnically diverse to a degree. Half the class was white and that half was a majority of women. The other half was a mix of different ethnicities.

When it came to discussing whiteness, I saw a very disconcerting thing happening. We were discussing things in a gradation of colour. First it was white women who spoke, then asian women, THEN (as if the white men knew their place) started to speak, then the light brown women and men spoke, and then the last to speak and who was mostly ignored was the darkest in colour in class. I sat back and watched as one of the darkest coloured women in the class was constantly ignored for the voice of an asian woman, a white woman, a light brown woman, or even the voices of the white men in constant consecutive fashion.

I dunno what to really say about it, but it was driving me crazy to see it happen. I was even pointing constantly at the girl who was being ignored and there were several times where I saw the "fuck it" look on hers and other black people's faces in the room. I'm going to have to sit back and see if the trend persists as class goes on and if it does, I'm going to have to pull the teacher to the side and speak to her about it.