reflecting on where you were when we began this process, where you are now, and what’s been happening in between. How-and-what have you been learning? Where do you think that the edges of your learning now lie? In what ways has your understanding of identity, of environment, and of the reciprocal relationship between them been expanded, challenged, or complexified? In what ways have you been resisting such learning?

Dear Jody,

Where you were when we began this 360° process?

Nervous, excited. I was eager to push myself out of my comfort zone both as a student and a human. I knew I needed to learn more about race - I wanted to really delve into theory and history and look at it from a lot of complex angles. I wanted to challenge the comfort I've been afforded due to my whiteness. I wanted to work harder than I've ever worked and learn as much as possible. I had also just come from CDA (Community Diversity Assistant) training and was eager to jump into the academic aspect of that work.

Where you are now, and what’s been happening in between?

In her novel “All Over Creation” Ruth Ozeki explores the relationship between identity and the environment.  Her characters illustrate this, along with the crops they grow.  Lloyd and Momoko Fuller know that farming is hard work, especially when you’re growing Russet Burbank potatoes.  In order to produce the ideal potato, you have to provide the perfect soil.  Lloyd and Momoko applied this rule to the way they raised their daughter Yumi.  They believed that as long as they gave her love, kept her in line, and had a firm grip on her, then she would grow up to be the good Methodist potato farmer they wanted her to be.  Unfortunately for the Fullers, children are harder to raise than potatoes.  What her parents believed was a nourishing environment eventually became toxic to Yumi – she wa

In her novel “All Over Creation” Ruth Ozeki explores different family dynamics through her characters.  The difference between the way Yumi raises her children and the way she was raised by her parents is striking.  While her parents (especially her father, Lloyd) took an authoritarian approach to raising her, Yumi instead takes an authoritative approach to raising her own children.  Although it is clear that her parents truly loved her, Yumi felt suffocated by their judgements of her.  In her first letter to her parents, she explains that she was sure that their shame “was going to fill every crack in the house, seep into every second of the day, and suck the air right out of me.” (Ozeki 37).

The 1960’s were a time of change in American society.  Due to the Civil Rights Movement, led by Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. and supported by President John F. Kennedy, society’s treatment of black Americans was changing for the better.  This was a time of growing acceptance of the differences between individuals, however, many differences remained taboo – specifically homosexuality and refusing to conform to gender roles.  In Suzan-Lori Parks’ novel, “Getting Mother’s Body,” the character Dill Smiles shows how these taboos are viewed by others at this moment in time.  Dill, who is widely believed to be a hyper-masculine lesbian, endures a lot of hatred and scorn from others upon their realization that they are not a heterosexual man.

The phenomenon of slipping is present in all aspects of our society, on a micro and macro scale.  We do it without noticing sometimes, unaware of how our behavior may affect those around us.  When we slip as individuals, we unknowingly present others with the opportunity to correct our ignorance by explaining to us why what we did is wrong.  This can be a hard conversation to start, but one that is very important and can change the way we view the world.  When an institution slips, the situation is far more complicated.  Because institutions have more power than individuals, their slippage is much more damaging to society.  Consequently, this damage is much harder to repair - a simple conversation cannot remediate the issue.