But wait... first... I just read some of the blogs from last week and WOW. Keep it up young people.
You make me P-R-O-U-D. Your thoughtfulness and willingness to "go there" in your reflecting on our work together is impressive.
Okay. Back to the regularly scheduled broadcast.
In class on the Wednesday, my class did the identity readings and activities, and I started class with this video.
If you haven't watched this 2016 version of the Black Eyed Peas' "Where is the Love?" I highly recommend. Not only is it a really great update to the original (I like it more now that I've listened and watched a few times.) but it touches on so many of the relevant topics of today and of Global Connections.
I shared with my class that this work that WE are doing TOGETHER is REAL. It's not a purely academic process. It's real life. And that is what makes it so important.
Today, I spent the day immersed in an exploration and discussion of White Privilege and Whiteness as a Weapon. In some cases it was review for me (White Privilege) but the powerful new thinking around using Whiteness as a Weapon was profound. Obviously, there is the current culture around police brutality toward men and communities of color. That "Whiteness as a Weapon" is fairly apparent in everyday headlines.
But I hadn't considered how we use it as a weapon in some much more daily and "usual" ways. Here is my very over simplified summary of the session.
When we think of Whiteness as a culture, these are cultural values on which we operate:
1. The concepts on the list above don't exclusively "belong" to white people but they are primarily the values on which white people in the United States operate.
2. The "whiteness" of the concepts above are not inherently bad. In fact many of them are great qualities and values to embody.
3. It is only when it is considered "the best, the right or the ONLY way to be" does it become a potential weapon.
For example: As a teacher, if I value those who constantly raise their hands and share in class (extroversion) as the "best way to show what you know" and give those students higher grades for "participation" while de-valuing or de-emphasizing other skills like group work and collaboration, I can be using "Whiteness as a Weapon". Not all cultures value the idea of "showing what you know" or see that kind of giving answers as a way of "acting as though you are better than another person". That is a competitive, individualistic, extroverted aka "White" cultural value. Other cultures, African-American, Latino, Indigenous, value the group or the community over an individual success.
Another example: The value of rigid time schedules and "time is money" doesn't take into consideration that many cultures value relational time over clock time. In clock time, if I have a prearranged meeting but a student comes in for help, I give him or her that 5 minutes but then I have to go off to my next prearranged meeting and leave that student whether or not he/she got what she needed from me. In relational time, if I am having an important conversation with someone and that conversation needs 5 minutes, I give it 5 minutes. If it needs 2 hours, I give it 2 hours. If it needs 5 hours, I give it 5 hours. We do not move on until that relationship has been tended to. Can you imagine a world like that??? I want to live THERE... a place where people matter more than a schedule. What happens when a person is late to a meeting and we run up the ladder of inference using "white cultural values"... ponder.
The other big concept that we discussed today was how to use LOVING accountability as a means of holding ourselves and others responsible in interrupting racism when it is encountered in our daily lives. How do we "Call In" (That thing you did didn't land well with me... Can I give you some feedback?) others to conversation and inquiry rather than "Calling Out" (You are a racist.) people when they injure or offend. We must stay in a place that we let ourselves engage in conversations that can be very hard, but we do so with love. (Where is the LOVE???).
Finally, I want to end this already way too long post, with a story. Our facilitator shared a story about her niece, Isabella, who is 7 years old and with whom she has been having ongoing conversations about race since she was old enough to understand (about 4 years old). After seeing something on television about police brutality, Isabella and Christine (the facilitator, auntie) had a conversation about white people and black people in this country. This was the picture that Isabella drew in class the next day during "Free Art Time".
It speaks for itself.
Look closely.
It says "The American Eagle Can't Decide".
On one wing is a white person.
On the other wing is a black person. The eagle's head (I know, it kind of looks like a chicken. She is 7, cut her some slack) is turning back and forth.
Down the tail it says "Both in Peace."
Even a seven year old gets it.
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| Isabella, Age 7, "The American Eagle Can't Decide" |
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