Oh my goodness, I am simply overflowing with things to write about right now!!! I'll recap the past few days soon (including an awesome trip to a local baseball game, what an experience), but just now I really want to share some thoughts about the seminar our staff had this afternoon. As I've written this out I'm coming to realize that I think there are two posts in here, so consider this part one!
The school invited Dr. Josephine Kim to address us (and later parents and students) in a discussion entitled "The Culture of All Diversity." Dr. Kim is a lecturer in Harvard University's graduate school of education, and her talk today was tailored to our experience -- a largely Western faculty coming to teach at an international school in South Korea. So much of it deeply resonated with me, particularly given my background at a women's college with a major social justice orientation. I know I won't be able to do her presentation justice, so do bear with me!
She started out by telling us a little bit about her experience of moving to the United States from Korea when she was in elementary school and the microaggressions she experienced as people associated phenotypical experiences with certain cultural stereotypes. Throughout her time in the US she has weathered constant questions of "where are you from?" searching for information about her ethnicity. More recently, strangers will remark to her that "your English is so good!" People often don't think about how such things are received -- both of these remarks imply "you are foreign," "you are different," "you don't belong."
Later on, we did a quick activity. We divided into groups of 5, and each group was given a few strips of stickers and a "cultural norm" (of which there were eight altogether). Following that, we had to try and interact with those around us, and anytime someone offended our group's norm, we gave that person a sticker. My group's was having a 5-foot personal bubble, and other norms included viewing smiling in conversation as offensive, a dislike of eye contact, needing to keep one's neck covered, preferring a 10-second wait time before responding to a question, and so on -- all norms drawn from cultures around the world. Only one person (out of our staff of ~125) didn't get any stickers, and that from largely avoiding interactions. Even students who are being trained in counseling won't admit to starting to feel culturally competent until completing an average of eight semester-long classes directly relating to cultural sensitivity.
There's a culture of power, and those in power are least willing to acknowledge the existence of this matrix. The powerful define a reality, and that which is marginalized by the reality they create becomes institutionalized. Everyone in the society begins to internalize these ideas, and ultimately the powerful culture will impose their values and beliefs to the eradication of the culture, language, and history of minority groups. Children's self-efficacy comes from seeing someone like them in a position of power. I recently read an interesting Whoopi Goldberg quote that really sums up the importance of representation: "Well, when I was about nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be." Similarly, I went to see Hilary Clinton speak when she came to San Jose during her presidential campaign in late 2007, and as they say, she had me at hello. (Still holding out hope for 2016!!!) She opened her speech by saying something along the lines of, "I am proud to be running in this election, which means to me we can look our children in the eyes and honestly say, you can be whatever you want to be."
No matter the culture we come from, we're socialized to be ethnocentric, so we all naturally carry with us certain prejudices and biases. I don't believe there is anyone in the world who does not have any such beliefs. I remember being in high school and celebrating international day and joking with other friends of European descent that we "had no culture," not realizing the gravity of those words. The important thing is to be considerate, open, and accepting of those around us. We have to be ready to listen and learn, respect and celebrate our differences, not make assumptions about others' identities. There was an org at my college called the Beyond Tolerance Project, and I think that says it all. As Dr. Kim said, you tolerate a headache -- we have to extend more than just tolerance to our fellow human beings. In addition, it's crucial to recognize our positions of privilege, because those at the top of the hierarchy of power often do not realize that they are there, even though they are the ones with the greatest ability to affect change.
While the focus of much of our conversation this afternoon was largely Korean and Western cultures (which will be part two of this mini-series), I think it's really important to broaden our sensitivities to include sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, ageism, classism. (Check out this gif-set for a good quick summary of why that's important.) These were touched on in Dr. Kim's talk, but I think it's important to bring them frequently into the spotlight. For my last four years at a women's college, I have been surrounded by others who were, on the whole, very thoughtful of how they spoke and acted. Since coming into the "real world," I've frequently been surprised, shocked, even offended by what others say, particularly around sexism and heterosexism. As a queer woman, I feel so strongly about equality and acceptance for all populations, and throwaway comments about something being "girly" or "gay" hit deep. The frustrating thing is that many others don't react strongly to comments like this, because it is so deeply entrenched in Western culture that they don't bat an eye. One of my goals as an educator is to engage students to question inequality and confront prejudice and injustice, to be sensitive and accepting and loving.
I'm going to end this post the same way Dr. Kim ended her talk, which was with a TED Talk featuring storyteller Chimamanda Adichie entitled The Single Story, thus this post's title. I urge you to watch it; she is a compelling speaker and sums things up far better than I can. Even if you don't have time to watch it now, here's the quote that I really took away: "Show a people as one thing over and over again and that is what they become."
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Currently reading: gah, I'm stalled, I have to get back into reading!
Current high: deep thinking about things that matter...plus a Skype date with two of my besties tomorrow AM!
Current low: spent a few minutes trying to come up with one but all I can think of is that I'm hungry, so I guess I'll go fix that XD
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