September 27, 2016 - 20:49
This is going to be a short post, I feel as though my energy has been totally spent recently and trying to articulate myself amidst all this just seems so far from what I want to ask of myself.
I’ve recently been revisiting Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire, who we’ve read a lot about in class. From what I understand, it is an important text in the education world, particularly those who intend to utilize education as a means of liberation. A part that always resonates with me when I read this is the conditions Freire calls necessary for dialogue. In sum, Freire states that love, humility, faith, trust, hope and critical thinking are intrinsic to true dialogue and dialogical education. I’ve been trying to root this in my core as I move through the world as a proponent of dialogue, while I have at the same time been analyzing my role as an oppressor in this world, too. I participate in something called co-counseling, which at it’s core is about anti-racism and oppression generally. One of the things that we do is focus on our oppressor patterns* with the dominant identities we hold. So, as I continue co-counseling and reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed, I keep thinking about my oppressor patterns as a white person and how that limits/complicates/interacts with my attempts at true dialogue.
*ask me more about this if you want, or co-counseling generally, I didn’t fully explain it here