Teaching at a community college/technical college has been a joy and a struggle. The biggest obstacle (other than understanding their intellectual needs) was when a few of them stormed the dean’s office, claiming that I had no right to talk about Mike Brown at college. The real deal was that I had them read an article about the atmosphere of distrust and fear around black bodies. Some of the discussion questions were... ***** What does it mean that many African American and many Caucasian Americans can look at the same situation and see completely different things? ***** The author says that the source of our trouble in the U.S. and the reason we can’t progress is due to our inability to hear each other and believe that different groups of people experience different everyday realities. Do you agree with this? Explain why or why not in 4 or more sentences. ***** Explain how and why our conversations break down and become unproductive. ***** It is my stance that we should all take individual responsibility for this kind of atmospheric distrust. How can we individually be AGENTS OF CHANGE to improve the situation? Out of four classes, I had one beautiful, trembling, honest discussion (at a 4-year university); two productive worthwhile discussions (at the 2-year college); and one class where people wouldnt read the article and reported me to the dean, followed by a resistant discussion in the next class period. Through all the struggles with this particular class, two students brought me gifts on the last day of class. It’s amazing how powerful a tiny thank you is. Btw., the contrast of these behaviors might be my official welcome back to good ole South Carolina. This is one of the many situations that has led to the attached event. I welcome any comments and all are welcome to join us on our online radio response on Decemeber 19.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 18:13:02 +0000
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