If I was asked to put 2 words to describe the state of racism in today’s society it would be insidious and destructive. With the shadow of coronavirus canceling in-person school I have begun to make the transition from in-class learning to zoom-class learning. It has been interesting first 2 weeks first few weeks with online learning but I am finding it to be less obstructive than I would have thought. During the past 3 weeks, we have been exploring racism in its many forms. We have learned about the history of African American people in the US through the 1619 project, about the symbols of racism through the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. All of our activities were thought-provoking and they have led me to uncover a few truths about myself.
Every week during this project I will be tasked with creating an artifact that demonstrates my thought during the past weeks’ explorations. The artifact could be about anything and the only constraint with what I create is that it has to connect to our two main driving competencies:
- Analyzing Cause and Consequence
- Connectionction to myself
Leaving me with such an open-ended task was a challenge. From when I was given the task on Thursday, it took me until Saturday night to come up with a type of artifact that I could pursue. Eventually, I settled on writing a short story that would tie some of my own experience combined with some creative storytelling to tell a story with a message that represents my thinking on the issues I explored. I wrote the story as if I was a young adult named Ben Wilson who was writing a memoir about his past transgressions. The book ended up being 4 chapters long detailing the events that would allow Ben to uncover some of the lethal biases that in the back of his subconscious all of his life. I believe many of us have these hidden biases in our heads and it is up to us to be aware of how the preconceived notions affect our day to day interactions.
