Looking for the original post of the image I wrote about last week led me to some great inspirational pages. One of the best ones I found was this:
I love this for a lot of reasons. It definitely reminds me of RBG, but it instantly made me think of teaching.
Reaching some students has always been…challenging. Not everyone is gifted in the same areas and some kids shun academia entirely, even while knowing they need it for their futures. With a population that has been routinely told they are less than or they aren’t as important as others, it becomes easy for them to internalize those thoughts and ignore anything that counters it. Finding a way to get them to really hear messages takes work, patience, and persistence. And, hopefully, that forges a relationship where they will want you to listen to them as well.
On a larger scale, I feel like this is what the world as a whole (and the US in particular) needs more of. No one wants to listen to each other; they just want to yell the loudest and steamroll over everyone else. The political division in the US has reached epic proportions and is largely fueled by factually unfounded feelings about “the other.” The definition of “other” changes constantly and seems to be a moving target for blame, hate, and outrage.
We finally have a president called by AP, but it’s close and contested (and probably will be until massive recounts are done). The Senate is almost a 50/50 split (we’ll see what happens in Georgia’s runoffs for that one) and that is a sadly poetic representation of our country. Divided. Unwilling to bend. Convinced that they are right and everyone else is inferior.
That’s not to say I don’t have my own opinions on where the majority of hate speech, bigotry, racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and classism lie. There is one faction that has embraced the inflammatory to gain power on the backs of a terrified majority that doesn’t want to relinquish any privilege to ensure the good of their fellow humans. But the whole didn’t get there by the actions of that faction. Everyone in power played a part in perpetuating systemic injustices that not only divided and fueled fear and hate, but allowed it to grow.
People seem to have lost the ability to speak in such a way that others who don’t agree want to listen to them. They’re wrapped up in hearing their own voices and getting validation of their beliefs, totally uninterested in what anyone else has to say.
It makes me apprehensive for the future. It’s going to be an uphill battle, but I do believe that we can once again conquer hate and become the shining symbol of acceptance and strength we once were.
I have to believe it.
References
Speak in such a way [Image]. (n.d.) https://www.buzznicked.com/amazing-quotes-2/
Originally posted as part of the Full Sail Mastery Journal.
