“The Rich and the Rest of Us” – What is the Real Divide?

There are nearly 150 million poor and near poor people in America who are not responsible for the damage done by the Great Recession. Yet they pay the price. The poor did not create the deindustrialization of America, unmatched corporate profiteering and greed, more than a decade of foreign wars, and unregulatedtax benefits for the wealthy. When the largest economic institutions in the world were brought to their collective knees, they went crawling to the government’s doorstep in search of salvation. The government obliged, allowing Wall Street to socialize its failure on the backs of Main Street Americans. The housing and jobs crisis they created fostered a poverty unseen in generations—not just in inner-city ghettos and barrios, but also in suburbs and rural areas crossing racial, age, and gender lines. Nearly one-third of the American middle class—mostly families with children—have fallen into poverty.”

—Tavis Smiley and Cornel West

“Class warfare” is the claim that Republican conservatives have spouted when the issue of economic inequality is brought by advocates like Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley.  What does that mean? It means that when the truth about the rules and rights of the rich versus the poor is exposed, the argument is that these advocates are discriminating against people who are rich, creating a “war” against people who are wealthy.

Does that make sense?

This becomes an argument of between facts and impressions.  People with facts tend to stand on more solid ground in this kind of argument.  Why is that? Could it be because FACTS can’t be subjective?

The excerpt above is an example of using logic and facts to support the rationale behind financial and economic instability.

I am not a political debater.  I actually get a little disinterested in the extended cable commentary that reiterates the same 5 minute soundbite over and over and over.  I just want truth to be spoken to power in an authentic and genuine way.

People like Dr. West and Mr. Smiley tend to cut through the political, pontificating rhetoric to get at the truth of the matter. In this case, it’s dealing with why only a small amount people stay rich while the majority live in poverty.  It mirrors the educational gap between majority students  and minority students in varying communities. The frustrated adults and commentators question why the gap remains; the everyday victims of this crime sadly become immune to its destructive results.

How do we change this? How do you fix this problem? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as taking a pill to take the pain away.

It requires community involvement on a local, state, and federal level.  It requires pointed activism from the Occupy Wall Street movement.  It requires re-calibrating the opportunity scales so that EVERYONE has a fair shake at the American Dream of getting a good education, getting a good job, buying a house, having a family, saving money for your own kids to go to college, etc.

What do you think about this “class warfare”? Is it really a battle or just one-sided argument?

A New Adventure: Reflecting on Destiny and Stanley Ann Dunham

It’s a bright and sunny Sunday morning – my favorite time of day.

Despite it being Easter Sunday (which is sacred in itself for spiritual rebirth and family fellowship), this time of day offers my favorite reading material of the week – the Sunday Edition. Today, I was lucky enough to be given today’s New York Times paper with an interesting magazine cover on top of the piling. The cover was a vintage picture of a young white mother with black shorts with her adorable son dressed up as a pirate in brown sandals for Halloween with the title “Why She Went: When Barry Obama was 6 years old, his mother moved him to Indonesia. It was a decision that would define his life and hers.” That adorable pirate and that Barry Obama are one in the same – he would later become our President Barack Obama.

His life story is the stuff of folklore almost – absent father, caring and supportive grandparents and mother raising him, having to figure out where he belongs as a teenager and young adult, finding his footing to go to Columbia for undergrad, law school, working as a community organizer only to ascend even higher and higher as a senator and finally, the President of the United States. If you haven’t read his memoir, it is definitely a requirement for any educated person. But little is known about his mother, the woman who fell in love with and married a charismatic and articulate Kenyan from the University of Hawaii, producing a baby boy that would be “king” so to speak.

After the divorce, she met and married a grad student named Lolo Soetoro from the Indonesian island of Java. She later moved to Indonesia with her young son in tow to begin her international adventure of raising children, working, and travelling the world. It’s kind of incredible to have a mother like that.

All the while, she was instilling in her six-year-old son the manners, morals, and widened, world perspective that would be his signature persona as an adult. The new Mrs. Soetoro had her son reading from workbooks, encouraging him to be “a combination of Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, and Harry Belafonte.” High standards for sure but somehow I think she succeeded in her task.

What internal strength it must have taken to move away from everyone and everything you know to submerge yourself in a completely new culture and country to marry the man you love. Bravery and courage almost seem too simple to use in describing such a feat. It was something steely and powerful inside of this “mild-mannered” Kansas native – almost like Clark Kent with the heart and soul of Superman.

I reflect on this chapter of her life with relief, relief to know that my new adventure has been travelled by one of the most influential people in American history. Okay, this is just MY OPINION but the mother of President Barack Obama was the person that shaped him to be the man, leader, father, husband, brother, and human being that we all have the privilege to know and respect. Therefore, she is a part of American history, one of the many stories from the American Dream.

I’m not going to say that I am not afraid of this new adventure that I am on in a week but I will say that I am more calm and even resolute to this new chapter. I think I have that travelling spirit of Stanley Ann Dunham, ready to meet my destiny no matter where it takes me. I pray that God will lead my heart to that destination and that I will trust in His plan for me.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Finishing Out the Week – Is Senioritis Contractable?

Finishing out this week is a welcome ending to a very chaotic series of events, both personal and professional. The best news of the week is getting an offer to be a full-time instructor over the summer in my beloved New Orleans. So now the frenzy begins – moving, checking out the summer rentals, working on when to officially leave road trip-style. It’s enough to make anyone feel completely overwhelmed!

But as you know, life never just hands you one thing to fret/get frustrated over. I had to grade huge piles of MLA research papers from my TWO Composition classes, totalling about 25-30 papers ranging from 5-10 pages in length. You do the math. But it wasn’t the fact that I had to grade these papers that made me feel discouraged, it was the overall content and organization of a certain set of papers that made me want to cry.

Let me explain. As an educator, I try to be as transparent as possible with my expectations for class participation, class discussions, homework, and essays. That is why I hand out very detailed syllabi with the breakdown of course material that will be covered every week of the semester. I painstakendly sculpted course material to advance gradually so students could steadily improve in their writing and critical content. Because a MLA research paper is chronically much more intense and difficult for students, I took great care in assigning simpler papers at the beginning of the semester, gradually intensifying the material to prepare students for this major assignment. I make myself completely available to students during office hours and via email. I spent many class meetings outlining the paper’s guidelines and offered MANY resources that students can refer to to help them in their endeavor. In short, I did EVERYTHING I was supposed to do.

Despite all of this active precautions and preparation, I have had to read papers that lack the basic guidelines I have outlined since the beginning of the semester in January. Essay headings are deformed, typos and spelling errors run amuck, in-text citations and peer-viewed drafts are missing in action, and repetition makes the reading stale.

I have been talking to my colleagues in the office and they are experiencing the same frustration with their own students. Somehow some students have forgotten the work ethic and professionalism they had learned from their college classes this semester. Is senioritis contagious? Can it be contracted through the campus air conditioning, drinking fountains or cafeteria food? I am afraid for everyone!

I think the reason why we educators take this so hard is because we care WAY TOO MUCH. I mean, this isn’t a profession known for its lucrative paychecks. You get into this profession because you genuinely LOVE what you do – you love mentoring and helping students ascend to their best selves “by any means necessary.” And that is why you stay up late crafting interesting course material, writing syllabi, and finding supplementary materials that we get you and your students excited about learning.

So to see the bright side of the situation, I refer to my students who really “GET IT” – the students who see what you see in the importance of this class and its material. They are the people I work for and give selflessly to. They are the light at the end of this very dark tunnel. Thank you for seeing ME the way I see YOU – empathetic critical learners, writers, and citizens of the global community.

Being an Adult – Just Making Money Doesn’t Make You “Grown”

As my Spring Break slowly comes to an end, I am very appreciative of the time off because it allowed me to rest and make plans for the future (more specifically, the summer and the upcoming fall).  It also allowed me to make some realizations about where I am in my life.

I realized that living from paycheck to paycheck is not living at all; it’s surviving.  It keeps the lights on, food in the fridge, gas in the car, needed clothes on your back, and a place to stay for another month. I spent my twenties nickel-and-diming from one job to another (and even two or three at once to make ends meet) and realized that those days need to become less and less if I have any hope of becoming the strong, independent woman that I want to be.

For that to happen, my skills need to be recognized by employers with full-time job opportunities.  Therefore, marketing and creating exposure for those skills are paramount.  So in a way,  this blog is part of my marketing package.  Freelancing is also another part.  My dream is to become a writer and live (and work) in either New Orleans or New York City.  Just throwing that out to the universe.

But “what I know for sure” is that making money does not insure “success” as an adult.  Anyone can make money in many different ways – some legally but many illegally.  A bi-weekly paycheck is the product; as an adult, one has to focus on the process that creates the product.  What are you doing to get that paycheck? What OTHER skills and life experiences are you cultivating in the process?

These kinds of qualities are not tangible objects to be counted like cash but nonetheless, they are more valuable than a thousand paychecks! Qualities like emotional maturity, responsibility,character, and integrity are just a few things that transform you from a kid working from job to job to an adult pursuing a lifelong career.

I’m not a kid anymore and if anyone claims to be an adult, those qualities need to become a priority because no employer wants a kid as a lifelong employee.  Companies want adults that are more than just worker bees.  They want people with those intangible qualities that can eventually become the Queen (or King) Bee.

Top 30 Things You Should Know About This Blogger

So I realized something about this amazing blog and equally extraordinary audience – if you are new to my blog, you probably don’t a great deal about me.  And I further realized that my life has been a testimony to chapters of extraordinarily interesting and fascinating life experiences (yes, I just got a little wordy but it’s for a point).  Here is an ironic list  numbering 30 items  that offer some more insight into who I am as a person, more than just an educator.

#30:I love Christmas music during the holidays!
#29:I love Eggnog! No one in my fam likes it but I get it every year! Then I know it’s Xmas!
#28:I have a special reverence for The Nutcracker – I was a toy soldier and rat (not in the same production) in my dance school’s production when I was a kid. Yes, I was a ballet dancer and I still miss it!

#27: When I got into DC, a strange feeling comes over. I feel this sense of pride and awe being in the region where major decisions in our country are made. And I am THAT CLOSE to meeting the Obamas! Hey, it could happen!

#26: I am so proud of my younger brother! He is my rock (even if he doesn’t know it and gets on my nerves sometimes)!

#25: I hate the smell of chitterlings! When I was younger, my parents would love to cook it on the stove and the entire house had its disgusting smell. To this day, I will never eat a bite of it!

#24: I learned how to type so fast from the Mavis Beacon computer program. When I graduated from middle school, my dad put me on this schedule to work on the program every day, almost all summer. To this day, I rarely have to look down at the keys (really just for the numbers because I don’t use them as much as letters).

#23: I used to be really jealous of my brother when we were little. When he was a toddler and my mom was filming him with the video camera, when she wasn’t looking, I would knock him down softly. LOL! But eventually, I got over it.

#22: In middle school, I used to like this boy but he wouldn’t be honest if he liked me or some other girl. He called me up at home and I got so tired of his crap that I played the chorus in Janet Jackson’s song “If” and hung up the phone. Look it up, kiddies. Boy, did I have some guts as a kid!

#21: My cousin let me ride with him on his motorcycle when I was a teenager. We went REALLY fast! It was so much fun but my mom was so afraid for me. I couldn’t stop laughing!

#20: My mother has an obsession for all things Ralph Lauren, especially when she was pregnant with me. She named me after her favorite designer and perfume.

#19: I am the oldest sibling in my immediate family. My younger brother is my new roommate.

#18: Initially, I attended college in hopes of being a doctor. I took an internship in HS with an orthopedic surgeon and fell in love with the practice. But once I started taking the required math and science courses (and started failing those classes even with all help in the world), I quickly switched to English.

#17: I worked in the Human Resources Department in the University Library when I was a sophomore at UF. I learned a great deal about the inner workings of payroll (like library staff gets really agitated when their checks aren’t correct).

#16: No, I have never been married (and I have no kids) but I would like to be someday.

#15: For a school trip in HS, I went to Europe. The class and I went to Italy (Venice and Verona), Germany and Switzerland. Talk about a great Spring Break!

#14: I am a chronic bibliophile. Currently, I’m reading Think Like A Man, Act Like A Lady by Steve Harvey and I just got uploaded Grimm’s Fairy Tales (you got to know the classics, right?),  a lot of Oscar Wilde, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, and W.E.B. DuBois on my E-reader application on my laptop!

#13: I love Spoken Word Poetry. I have two locations in Miami that I used to when work wasn’t too hectic. I have yet to find a new place in the DMV area.  Any suggestions?

#12: If I had to choose a TV character that was the most like me, I would say either Brenda Lee Johnson from TNT’s The Closer or Kate Reed from USA’s Fairly Legal. Their mix of strength and vulnerability is something I can DEFINITELY identify with.

#11: I met Hill Harper at Yale where he held a luncheon for young people for his book Letters to a Young Brother. He is incredibly nice and well-spoken. My HS students were trying to hook me up with him. How embarrassing (but he did call me “exquisite”)! Not bad for a HS teacher!

#10: I am a closet romantic. I hate to say it but it’s true. I love listening to my fave love songs (mostly from MJJ) to go to sleep to.

#9: I buy at least two new fashion/celebrity gossip magazines every other Friday. I am also a loyal follower of The Young, Black, and Fabulous celebrity blog since 2003. A lady has to stay current on ALL kinds of news!

#8: I secretly want to be a DJ. I actually tried it out at a friend’s party and I was terrible (but I loved every minute of it!). I have this secret talent of creating the most amazing mixed tapes/playlists for every mood. My iPod and Blackberry are full of them.

#7: My parents raised my brother and me to appreciate the rich history of African-American music and film. We listened to all the Motown greats (The Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Jackson 5/The Jacksons), Sam Cooke, James Brown, 70′s and 80′s Soul/R&B singers (Earth, Wind, and Fire, The Emotions, The Pointer Sisters, Phyllis Hyman, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Freddie Jackson, The Commodores, Lionel Ritchie, Donny Hathaway), and 90′s R&B (Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Janet Jackson, Anita Baker, Vanessa Williams, Tevin Campbell, Boyz II Men, Usher, TLC, En Vogue).  I tend to gravitate to those greats and compare everyone else on the music scene to them – sorry, new artists!

#6: I was not popular in HS. I was/still am really tall (almost as tall as the teacher), a tomboy (I played volleyball and preferred jeans and Chapstick to dresses and lipstick to wear to class), was a novice writer (I wrote a vampire novel for fun and it became a Freshman sensation) and liked to listening to SKA and rock music (long live No Doubt, Prince, and Lenny Kravitz!).

#5: After not having an “exit strategy” for graduating college, my parents moved me to CT in hopes that I would go to grad school at Yale. Yale didn’t work out (I worked full-time in a bookstore and in retail for a year instead) but Columbia eventually did. Not bad for a runner-up.

#4: I lived in NYC for two years. While at Columbia, I stayed in Harlem with my great uncle. It was wonderful and I miss it terribly.

#3: I saw the musical The Color Purple two times: once on my own dime in NYC and once when my parents came to NYC. As far as the rest of my family goes, I have become an adopted New Yorker.

#2: As a result of #4, I am a huge fan of  Sex and the City. Yes, I have seen the entire set of the series and yes, I own the movie (and I have seen it at least three times so far).  Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with its sequel – Carrie, you married the love of your life! Work stuff out TOGETHER! You don’t need to go OUTSIDE your marriage to feel complete in your marriage! I’m just sayin’.

#1: I have fallen love in with New Orleans a year ago at a conference and hopefully, I will be able to spend my summer there for some volunteer work that can beef up my resume.

Wisdom From A Former Server – Seeing “Regular” People In Their True Light

Just the other day, I read an article about the four jobs every person needs to have at least once.  One of the jobs was being a waiter/server.  Then an epiphany hit me! I remember doing that only a few months ago and what I learned from that job was invaluable.
This past fall, I was in a financial bind.  I was working but I wasn’t making enough money to sustain myself and my new roommate (who was working but hadn’t gotten a paycheck yet).  So like most people, I went looking for another part-time job to fix my situation.  The problem was the only sustained work experience was in college teaching.  I had some experience in being a retail salesperson (at a bookstore and a department store) but it was less than a year in length.  Then I hear about a new restaurant opening up in my area and I am immediately drawn to it.

Mind you, I had zero experience in serving anyone except my family during holidays, family reunions, and family visits but I figured that I could learn on the job and I was right.  The first week was focused solely on training – being a “marathon” server, having “fun” while you work, and treating the customer like gold or better.  I also was the ONLY person who never served in a restaurant before so I stood out a little.  But to sweeten the deal, I (and all the experienced servers) had opportunities to “win” free food from the menu and was paid for the training.

Once training ended, the real test began.  On the first few days, local businesses and neighbors with coupons came for free meals.  It felt more like intermediate training with live specimen than actual shifts.  Either way, it was a winning bargain – customers got free food and decent service while we new servers got the practice and work experience we needed.  And some of us servers even got tips from the free meals we served.

Finally, the real world of restaurants collided a week later.  We servers got order books with a mini binder to carry them, aprons, the miniature menu “cheat-sheet,” and finally, table sections (usually 4-6 tables a shift). Then the “real” paying customers started coming to eat.  The real test of my serving competency began.

The majority of customers were very nice and understanding.  They allowed me to go through my server script of opening greeting and appetizer/beverage/entrée suggestions.  I made friends with the kitchen and expo staff so that the right food came out on time and with little hassle.  I learned to coordinate the time it took me to get beverages and input food orders into the touchscreen computer with the time to took for food orders from other tables to be cooked and ready for their customers.  I’m not going to say that it was a simple process but over time, I learned how to do it effectively.

And like new restaurants, more people came and more money was spent.  I would like to say that my tips increased but that would not be the complete truth.  The truth is complicated, like many things in life.   When I first started, I had trouble understanding how to complete a cash transaction for a bill.  Do I give “the house” all the money?  Do I give the bill’s cost to “the house”? Do I keep it and give to my manager after my shift? My training didn’t go over that so I had to learn through trial and error.  That meant I tried to hold on to as much money as I was supposed to, give those earnings to “the house” at the end of my shift, and hopefully, I wouldn’t have given all of my tips to my manager in error.  Some days/nights were better than others.

But what I learned the most was how people can transform when they become restaurant customers (and managers for that matter).  In regular circumstances, mild-mannered people are hospitable, courteous, and accommodating.  But something changes when these “regular” people cross the power barrier to become customers or managers at a restaurant.  The old adage of “absolute power corrupts absolutely” has never been more true in this situation.

Like during our “free meals” sessions, the majority of customers were very understanding and in good spirits when things went well and not so well.  However, the minority sometimes spoiled the bunch of the majority.  This minority of “elite” felt entitled to perfection at every meal.  Now I can understand that expectation.  You go out with your hard-earned money and expect to be treated like a human being (or maybe even royalty) at a restaurant.  I want that too when I go out to eat.

However, behind the curtain, with unreliable food shipping schedules, weather hazards, missing crucial ingredients/supplies, inexperienced kitchen staff, and evasive managers, perfect service may not be a reality in some cases.   Unfortunately, all customers get to see is the server and food.  The server has the uneasy role of being the face of the restaurant and if things behind the curtain shut down, he/she left dealing with it in the presence of the customer.  So naturally, the server has to think logically and quickly in the face of turmoil while looking like he/she is completely in control.  It becomes even more stressful when the problems behind the curtain are not revealed until the order is taken.

This minority of customers may only focus on the obvious – missing/late/cold food/beverages, over-booked restaurant, and slow service.   The manager may be called so the customer can vent his/her frustration out on a person of authority instead of the “inexperienced” server.  The customers may either accept the problem with some grumbling, get bill reduced for the trouble, or get the entire bill paid by the restaurant.  In either case, the tip for that server will be nonexistent.

I say all of this to say that working as a server taught me a great deal about people and myself.  I learned that some people in power will abuse it to make themselves feel better.

History-Making, Academy Award-Winning Film of 2010 – How Teaching and Learning Gets Awarded Gold

It’s kind of extraordinary to make history.  No, I didn’t cure cancer, create a new invention, or discover a new country/continent.  Nevertheless, this weekend, I was part of something truly unique and special.

My roommate and I finally did something together that we had been romanticizing about for weeks, even months – we saw the film The King’s Speech. Let me explain . . . My roommate is very selective on film choices and even more selective on films to see in an actual theater.  Why?  Have you seen how much a movie ticket is these days?  I don’t blame him at all. 

But this weekend, the stars aligned – he had a day off from work, I taught an early morning (yet marathon three hour) class and finished at noon, and more importantly, he got paid!

On this luminous Friday afternoon, he took us out for lunch at a Mexican restaurant which was heavenly.  Then we made our way to the upscale Tyson’s Corner darkened theater.

As the film unfolded, I marveled at its story, and ultimately, its heart.  Being thrashed into an authoritative role as monarch when your family ridicules your flaw (and really don’t believe you REALLY are ready) while your only confidant is your spouse made me want to cry - I felt so empathetic to the Duke of York. What a lonely existence. 

But like any good confidant worth his/her salt, his wife was tireless in finding help for her husband.  That help ultimately came in the form of an Australian speech therapist and former theater actor Lionel Logue.  Match made in heaven, right! Not exactly.

Like all men, there is this period of adjustment and testing limits of this new “arrangement.”  Now throw in social titles and the period becomes more intense and awkward.  How do you address royalty when you need to set up common ground to work with a student?  What can you talk about when the student’s past is such a factor in recovering and he does not want to talk about it?  The dance of sarcasm, humor, wit, and honesty between student and teacher built a stable bridge of trust.

But life never stays the same for long.  The status quo changes and we all are left trying to adjust to the change.  This change turned the Duke into the King (with his living other brother in voluntary exile with the possibility of returning to regain the throne at any time).  Also, the Nazi party was on the rise and war with Germany was eminent.  Talk about pressure!

So what does the new King do?  Like many of us, he FREAKS OUT by assuming that he can do the job on his own and questions Logue’s credibility and credentials as a teacher (sound familiar?).  The King wants to be strong for his people who is understandable but shutting down at times of stress and pressure never helps the situation.  As far as Logue’s credibility, King George VI learns that Logue did not have a formal education (or a doctorate) in his field.  Instead, he had real work experience working with WWI former soldiers on their PTSD that forced them to stammer their words and lose their voice.  It is safe to say that Logue was no longer questioned about his effectiveness nor his credentials after that.

Their work prepared King George VI to deliver the most important speech of his reign – his radio address informing his people that Germany was going to war with England.  But more importantly, the two became and remained close friends for the rest of their lives.  Logue was even appointed to the King’s advisory cabinet.

And the most amazing part of it all . . .  IT REALLY HAPPENED!  How extraordinary!  And what did Oscar do last night? Award the film with GOLD at the Academy Awards for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Excellence is always awarded and if there is a compelling story attached to it, the sky is the limit.

So I am honored to have been able to see such a powerful film.  As an educator, it’s even more reverential because at the heart of the film is a relationship between a teacher and his student.  It highlights the importance of trust in such a relationship while also challenging the student to greatness.  I believe that greatness can be achieved in every student I teach.  But ultimately, it’s up to the student to WANT to be great.  King George VI met his destiny with the help of his teacher.  I hope I can do the same.

“The homework is tedious and it was frustrating to do homework that is not graded!” –

So I came to my office  after teaching an exciting  College Composition I and ran into  a perfect storm between an instructor and her disgruntled student.

The argument began with the student saying “The homework is tedious and it was frustrating to do homework that is not graded!”  Very interesting.  And unfortunately, the instructor got sucked into the student’s questioning, offering logical explanations to her questions.  The student was not appeased at all.  She went further to discredit the instructor’s teaching ability simply because the instructor does not grade homework but only collects it and grades larger assignments such as essays. 

When the instructor tried to explain further the rationale for this practice,  the student had a temper tantrum, criticizing the class, the instructor, and the class material. 

At the aftermath, I asked the instructor why she allowed that student to talk to her in that way.  I explained that a student like that is not looking for a logical solution; he/she is looking for someone to blame and the instructor is always the target. 

She later explained to me that the student had been added after the drop/add period of spring classes which only really clarified the student’s frustration.  She was frustrated because it was too much work in a short amount of time and she was already behind a month into the semester.

The instructor still had trouble rationalizing the student’s behavior and I could only sympathize with her trouble.  I didn’t want to judge her at all.  After all, we are both in a very demanding profession where few get out alive (or even enlightened).  Is this the current state of college students for the 21st century?

What do you think?  PLEASE send me some feedback.

DuBois’ “Double Consciousness” – Black History Month and Beyond

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, — a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world.  It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of  a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

- W.E.B. DuBois in “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” from The Souls of Black Folk 

When I was a student in college, I remember taking a class on the Harlem Renaissance where I read from an anthology of works from Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and many others.  One of the writers that I remember the most was W.E.B. DuBois.  My professor classified him as the first black academician in the United States at that time, gaining the first Ph.D. by an African-American from Harvard University.  Something struck in me about his history and ideology. 

As a natural intellectual, DuBois challenged young people to raise above their circumstance to achieve greatness.  While the debate between Booker T. Washington and himself was challenging (because both sides are very valuable points), I remember feeling empowered to answer that call.  I knew I wanted to be more than my skin color, age,  and gender.  Whatever my career would be, I wanted to be the best – not the best BLACK FEMALE professional, but the BEST professional!

Sometimes in class, I have to catch myself when selecting supplementary materials for my class.  I tend to be unconsciously drawn to traditional black film (you probably can tell from my new pictures on my blog’s homepage) and literature.  But to be the BEST, I need to diversify (and ultimately challenge) my selections, reflecting the multicultural fabric that is the American experience.  In other words, there are many other people besides white and black, right?

However, the concept of assimilation into a dominant culture is not new; it is an experience that is shared by people of many different genders, sexual orientations, cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities.  So how can I as an instructor tap into this issue without being superficial in my exploration through literature? Embrace the diversity!

Literature by nature is based on personal experience and who would say that this experience is uniform?!  No way! Just as we all have different connotations what love is, we have equally varied interpretations of literature and storytelling. 

So I will embrace “double consciousness” and expand it to reach every student in each of my classes.  Let’s see how this works!

“What I Know For Sure” – Oprah’s Top 20 Things

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/The-Top-20-Things-Oprah-Knows-for-Sure

For me, I feel very connected to many of Oprah’s “things,” ranging from being in a profession I love (college teaching), trusting my instincts in every facet of my life, failure being “a signpost to turn you into another direction” (I wish I knew that when I started college!) and being still to find the solution to a problem when you don’t know it immediately. 

But I want to know what my readers think!! This is your opportunity to respond to me for a change.

Please read her list and comment on any of the “things” that resonate with you.  BE HONEST!