BLOG #4

I admit …  I’m extremely afraid of venturing outside of my comfort zone.  I think I’ve already expressed this to you all… I had a conversation with Andre during the break of last class about his blogs.  I asked, “How do you write them?”  “What are you thinking when you write them?”   He said he practiced and wrote and wrote and wrote.  He found his voice.  He said to write what you know, write what feels natural and real and, again,  what you know (sorry, Andre, if I’m misinterpreting)

I know how to write a paper.  Tell me to write a paper on the disintegrating relations between blacks and whites in America today, and I know how to do it. Tell me to write a paper on pieces of literature that can be symbolic of the race conflict, and I know how to do it.   I can write a good paper on just about anything.  One thing I don’t know is how I’m going to impact the world, which is what this blog is supposed to be about.  I think that we will create an amazing and creative website (our omnibus J), but I still struggle on a daily basis to make people understand what it means to be a human being, regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, or culture.  I don’t know how to do it.  But I truly try every day to impact the world through my students.

I also admit, I’m a fan of the Dead White Man Canon (mostly)…  Some say that my reverence for such texts inhibit my ability to relate to the young and therefore affect my impact on the people that they will become.  But come on, William Shakespeare explained to us how, as mere humans, we can be our own worst enemy if we let ourselves be.  He also was the first to bring into light the disadvantages and vulnerability a black man has in a white man’s world.  Geoffrey Chaucer created a woman who defied medieval standards- she loves sex, men, and money.  Jonathan Swift use satire to scream at both England and Ireland “What the fuck is wrong with you???” 

I digress, I think we are going to create an amazing resource for anyone who is grappling with the issue of race/ethnicity and how our backgrounds affect us at the most elevated and at the most basic of levels on a daily basis including education (i.e. everyone).  I know that what we create will matter to many and I look forward to it coming to fruition.  But I also know that I, and all of the teachers, try to impact the world all day every day.  I also know that the people in class who are not teachers, but students, in just taking this class, impact the world in the mere fact that they are a part of it and share the desire to understand themselves, others and the world on a deeper level.  Maybe I’m idealistic (to a fault), but that’s how I feel.