MAARS

Hasan’s statement at the end of The Civic Empowerment Gap highlights one of the real challenges we all face in a multicultural society. He says, “I think we’re different because we have to fall back on our parents’ background because our parents--that’s what they teach us” (41). The idea that certain backgrounds produce certain conceptions of what it means to be American is important to consider. It is inevitable that each person’s past will inform, shape, sustain, or motivate their level of participation in civil society or even the extent to which they feel limited or empowered by civil structures. The problem occurs when our society privileges the past backgrounds of some people over the backgrounds of others.

One part of Shor and Freire’s article that I thought was particularly interesting was their emphasis on the social aspect of empowerment.  While we have talked a fair amount in our classes about identity and culture, I tended to think more about how someone fits into certain cultures, and how a teacher or class could cater to individuals who do not fit into the norm or the status quo.  I was thinking about how to empower an individual in relation to their social identity, but not as much about social empowerment in general.  I thought it was a great point when Freire says, “if you are not able to use your recent freedom to help others to be free by transforming the totality of society, then you are exercising only an individualist attitude towards empowerment or freedom” (109).

I was speaking to a friend just yesterday about the missions of BSL and how they relate to commenting for a College Newspaper article about Haverford’s decision to change the name of Black History Month Dinner to Soul Food Dinner. Questions about whether or not to give a comment as the person doing the article was again going to misrepresent BSL and the opinion they held was a topic we covered in depth but this wasn’t what brought up questions for me and it’s not what I will be writing about. At a point in the conversation we began speaking about where inequities come from and how it has adversely affected people of color but people still miss the point just like the College Newspaper missed the point of the Blackout Board.

                I had an interesting conversation with my mother this past week about the different nominations for the Oscars and the winners/nominees of the Golden Globes.  She had been listening to NPR and they were talking about the total lack of diversity this year, that the majority of those up for awards were white males.  What we were discussing was whether the movie and entertainment industry is still dominated by this presence.  In my mind, I think of actors as trying to be good public figures, of generally speaking out against oppression and urging people to celebrate their differences.  As my mom pointed out, though, the committee that decides who deserves recognition are people who have earned respect throughout their lives and as such they are the older generation, which c

Over the past few days, I have had a few conversations that have made me wonder about racial sensitivity in the Bi-Co. First, I was at dinner with friends, when one of them used the word gypped, as in he gypped me out of something. I let my friend know that the word shouldn’t be used, as it comes from the word Gypsy, and is thus obviously pretty offensive. She did not realize where the word came from, and was happy to have been informed of such. Another person at the table said that it was similar to the word jewed, but that jewed was more offensive, particularly in the Bi-Co, because there are more people who identify as Jewish than Gypsy. I was happy that we had this conversation, and it raised for me the question of why language is so important.

At the end of last semester, Haverford's BSL created what they called a "Blackout Board." This was an anonymous online response form that BSL created online to allow people to freely express their thoughts about race at Haverford and posted these responses on a bulletin board in Haverford's Dining Center. They generated a wealth of responses from students of color describing bad experiences and micro-aggressions to students describing the lack of communication across racial divides.

At the end of last semester, Haverford's BSL created what they called a "Blackout Board." This was an anonymous online response form that BSL created online to allow people to freely express their thoughts about race at Haverford and posted these responses on a bulletin board in Haverford's Dining Center. They generated a wealth of responses from students of color describing bad experiences and micro-aggressions to students describing the lack of communication across racial divides.

Obviously this past year has been quite eventful in terms of issues surrounding diversity, multiculturalism, and issues of access to power in and around the Bi-Co. For example, the killing of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and many other people of color by police sparked many important conversations and events about race in the Bi-Co. However, one race-related topic which I wish received more attention is the decreasing number of faculty of color at Haverford. Based on reading makalaforster’s post, it seems like this is also an issue at Bryn Mawr. However, I know very little about this topic at Bryn Mawr, so I am going to focus my post on Haverford.

 I was in a class last semester where one of my classmates strongly expressed that it was not possible to discuss diversity in science or math classrooms since these classes are really just designed to “present facts.” It seemed that he was implying that some of us were being oversensitive in wanting to discuss this. As several of my classmates and I expressed our disagreement with him, I realized how powerful lived experience is in informing how we talk about these issues. I could only explain how women sometimes feel intimated to contribute in science or math classrooms because I KNOW how this feels.

I grew up attending public school in Brunswick, Maine, a town that is 93% white in a state that is 95% white.  For many years, the naval base was located in our town, but in 2006 or so, the government started to close down the station, removing the majority of the people who were “out-of-towners.”  Of course there is still a variety of views and beliefs in the northeast, but people tend to be pretty similar.