The Women’s Center at the Main Campus was an incredibly welcoming little space with colorful, uplifting posters on the walls and comfortable seating. Its welcoming and comfortable outlook mirrored the Women’s Center at GU-Q. We spent a long time discussing a variety of different matters with the staff and students at the Women’s Center. I think one of the main things that stood out to me was the fact that the staff at the Women’s Center in the Main Campus are not allowed to discuss anything related to abortions. I of course understand hat the abortions are an incredibly contentious topic, especially after the overturning of Roe v Wade last year, but I still expected that he people at Georgetown, if not as an institution, then perhaps as individuals, would be able to do what they can for reproductive healthcare. By not allowing the women’s center staff to discuss anything related to abortions or reproductive healthcare, I do believe the university is taking away a crucial aspect in which the Center could help the students at Georgetown. When Roe v Wade was overturned last year, I was at the Main Campus and went to protest outside the Supreme Court with a lot of other students from campus. One of my friends who at that time was studying at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, showed me an email in which the university’s president had exhibited their concerns over the overturning of Roe v Wade and encouraged students who seek advice to reach out to the university. I understand that Georgetown has distinct political ideologies to uphold, but not allowing the Women’s Center to talk about abortions stood out to me as a form of censorship, and I must say that I hoped the university would take a more proactive step (informally if not as an institution) in a matter of such grave repercussions.
The one thing that I really liked about the Women’s Center at the Main Campus and believe can be done at our campus as well is the fact that there were a few student workers who were employed at the Center. This does sound like a small thing, but I thought it was nice how one of the student worker’s jobs included designing and making stickers for the Women’s Center. Stickers are amazing-we have to say that because we took a bunch of them-and I really think such a simple but formative addition to our Women’s Center could exponentially increase its popularity within the student body. I would love to see some GU-Q Women’s Center stickers on the laptops and water bottles across our small campus.
I genuinely believe that Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas is the best speaker I have ever come across in my life. There was not a moment in her speech when she did not have my absolute full attention. She spoke with so much passion that it was impossible to find flaws in her argument. Her prose was not just a summation of the experience of Black people in the United States, but one that asked the difficult question of why such institutional forms of oppression fundamentally exist. Her arguments reminded me a lot of Professor Siddique’s “Problem of God” as one of the primary questions we were looking at in the course was the same one Revered Kelly Brown Douglas highlighted: that if God is all merciful then why do some people, particularly Black people, suffer so much. To me, the highlight of the event was when our very own Michelle asked Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas the extent to which the “white gaze” was a result of us believing in an ontologically white Jesus. The simple question put in context centuries of history of colonialism and exploitation. Reverend Douglas replied and mentioned that there is no reason for us to think of Jesus as a white man, but we still do so: highlighting the close relationship that has formed between a nationalist version of Christianity that enables white supremacy in the U.S.