Guest post by Chris Gagliolo, special to FSNE for the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge
My name is Chris Gagliolo. I am from Peabody, MA which is a suburb about a half hour north of Boston. I am a senior Communication major with a focus in Interpersonal studies and will be graduating from UNH next month, May 2020.
As a songwriter, I am inspired by issues that extend beyond love and into the realm of social justice in regard to many different topics. Above are lyrics to a song that I wrote about 3 years ago. I wrote it at the end of my freshman year of college at University of New Hampshire (UNH), Durham after I had finished my first communication class, Intro to Language and Social Interaction. Throughout the class I learned a lot about marginalized perspectives and privilege. Since I have the privilege of being White and am aware of that, I wanted to use that privilege in a way to call attention to ideas of White privilege and how racism that can go unnoticed. By doing this it was my hope that I could utilize art to send a message that gets White people to think and reflect on their own actions in regard to racism. It is important to me that history does not get downplayed or manipulated and that we continue to fight for equity each and every day. This year, as a Civil Discourse Lab (CDL) Fellow in the College of Liberal Arts, I was planning with a CDL partner to host four campus conversations during the 21-Day Challenge. In preparation, we attended the FSNE hosted 21-Day Facilitator Intensive session held in early March. In collaboration with the Sustainability Institute, these conversations were among other 21-Day related events created as part of our UNH campus-wide participation in the Challenge!
I decided to name the piece Rose Colored Racism. By looking through rose colored glasses, it means to look at things in a cheerful, distorted sort of way. Rose Colored Racism to me is the phenomena of making racism seem like an issue of the past when it is still currently an issue that we can help and do something about each and every day. I remember when I first wrote this, I was unsure if I wanted to title it this or not because I wasn’t sure how people were going to react to the name. However, when I was at the facilitator training for this Racial Equity Challenge we learned about how when we decide not to use terms like “racism” out of comfort, we are protecting those of privilege groups rather than marginalized groups. This made me solidify my decision of 3 years ago to keep the name. With this song I tried to use my voice and create art that dives into the concepts of racism and white privilege to make people more aware of this ongoing issue. The fight for equity is a long a haul but with the love and support from all people hopefully one day we will get there.
Rose Colored Racism
Verse 1
White privilege
Bliss as can be
Little do you know
How blinding it is
Blind to the fact
That those you impact
Suffer at the hands
Drenched in ignorance
Chorus
So go on
And put your rose colored glasses on
Color in the past until it’s gone
And I know
It’s hard to get these shoes to fit
When you’re not exposed to it
If you were
This would be a different story
Ending in pure equity
So go on
Shut me down tell me I’m wrong
Just ignore the problem even more
Verse 2
Excuses
Flood in your head
Pour out your mouth
Without thinking bout them
Try to deny
Cuz the feelings inside
Make you uncomfortable
Put you in a defense mode
Chorus
Bridge
Lives taken
From unarmed civilians
Black skin
What a coincidence
You’ll say
That they were dangerous
Just blame the victim
Engrave that image
Chorus
