Isabella Cho in Harvard Magazine:
DURING A HISTORY seminar in my sophomore year, we opened class with a question derived from an assigned reading: What civic and political ills had made certain regions of Chicago sites of gang violence? We mulled the question for a few directionless minutes before a student raised her hand. Though I don’t remember what she said, I do remember that she prefaced the thought with, “As someone from the Chicago area….” She had lived there for 18 years. This phenomenon is common. It marks the moment in a classroom discussion, often a difficult or complex one, in which a student broaches a feature of her identity or lived experience that pertains to the topic at hand.
The Chicagoan’s viewpoint changed the dynamic of the conversation. Because she was the only person who identified as a long-time resident of the area, her perspective took on an air of heightened authority. I had wanted to advance a counterpoint, but now felt disinclined to do so. For one, it seemed that it would go against the authority of someone who had a deeper personal stake in the issue. Second, I thought that raising a counterpoint to the student’s perspective might be interpreted by my classmates not only as a challenge on intellectual grounds, but also as callous.
Neither are legitimate reasons to have withheld my comment. But I couldn’t help but feel both at that moment.
More here.