What is sexual racism? How does it pertain to social justice? What does a comprehensive, equitable sex education look like?
These and other questions will be examined in a webinar lecture and Q&A hosted by the St. Olaf Sexual Advocate Resource Network (SARN), Political Awareness Committee (PAC) and Cultural Union for Black Expression (CUBE). This webinar highlights speaker Autumn Morris, a certified intimacy educator and founder and CEO of Speaking of Sex, a platform based on sexuality and intimacy education.
Morris is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in industrial organizational psychology from Purdue University and is highly skilled in web content writing, website design and social media marketing. With an Instagram following of over 12,500 people, Morris uses her platform to educate others about the pitfalls in the American sex education system and stigmas surrounding sexuality. As a bisexual woman of color, Morris is familiar with the anxieties surrounding the lack of safe spaces available for non-heterosexual teenagers and young adults, and she has since found it difficult to seek out accurate information about her sexuality, identity and sexual health.
One topic that Morris is passionate about is sexual racism. Sexual racism was historically defined as the, “sexual rejection of the racial minority,” and, “the consensus attempt on the part of the majority to prevent interracial cohabitation.” Today, the term refers to a racial prejudice that is disguised as a, “sexual preference,” and further demeans and impacts the lives of people of color.
An example of contemporary sexual racism is the option to add an “ethnicity filter” to dating profiles. Adding this filter can either eliminate an entire group of people based on their skin color or fetishize them by reducing them solely to racially stereotyped characteristics. Racist media and online dating platforms often defeminize Black women through the open discrimination and dismissal of entire groups of people, perpetuating racist stereotypes and attitudes.
Morris is also a strong proponent of redefining sex education in schools, a crucial step to fixing many societal issues surrounding race and sexuality. Speaking of Sex is designed to fill in these educational gaps by providing comprehesive education to everybody regardless of their sexuality, especially in relation to social justice.
“If we expect to see better connections within our society, we must fix the problem at the root: lack of education,” Morris said.
To learn more about sex and sexual racism as it pertains to social justice, register for Autumn Morris’s webinar lecture on Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7:00 p.m. To register, head over to @stolafsarn on Instagram and click on the link in the bio. You can follow Morris on Instagram @speakingofautumn.
forres1@stolaf.edu
