If I had my choice, I believe I would only facilitate programs and presentations on the topic of social justice, inclusion and equity for student audiences. Yes, students may be naive at times but I have found that they are mostly open to new ideas and willing to engage in dialogue regarding tough issues if they feel they have some tools and skills to do it. I must say that I have been most frustrated with fellow student affairs professionals. Many believe that if they took a course in their graduate program or attended/facilitated a couple of sessions on diversity – “they are good to go”. Better yet, I’ve had several colleagues in sessions I’ve facilitated mention that since they are committed to student learning and development they are inherently committed to social justice. Yes, I do believe that most of us who work in the higher education community were drawn to it because of the mentoring relationships we can have with students. However, it is important for us to each acknowledge that even “good” people can do some very hurtful and oppressive things – sometimes unintentionally. Furthermore, I believe that acknowledging your ongoing personal work related to social justice issues models the work and skills that we’d like to see students exhibit. I have found that the “aha” moments that students have mentioned to me that they have experienced in my sessions are not when I show up as an expert, but rather when I show up authentic – bumping up against sexism, ableness/ability and other groups that I receive privileges in and owning my part in this thing we call oppression. So, the next time you feel the urge to say: “But, I’m a good person”, please remember that your “good” may be doing harm.
Vernon A. Wall
Founding Faculty Member
Social Justice Training Institute
vernon.wall@gmail.com
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The same old and different new
One of the advantages of being chronologically gifted is having been present at the moments that are now studied in books. The history of diversity and the multicultural perspective goes back well before I was born in 1950 so in many ways my reactions to the contemporary world of diversity and the multicultural perspective could well have been said in 1957 as well as 2,007. What were new events to me the like the rise and fall of the black panthers, The campus strikes in the spring of 1969, the development of women's consciousness raising groups, and man's consciousness raising groups, the emergence of Liberation Theology were probably both the same old and a different new. Ethnic groups have a long and checkered history the United States. The consciousness raising groups that we embraced so avidly go back well before my time are now are part of the triumvirate of awareness, knowledge, and skills.
Each new movement and each new generation rediscovers what had been explored by other movements and other generations. For a long time I've avoided participating in diversity and multicultural workshops, in spite of teaching the multicultural class on my campus. For many years it seemed to me that each new article and each new discovery was just the same old. It seems to be a recycling of old ideas, a new round of all talk and no action. As a former S. D. S. activist from high school days I knew that the difference between a liberal and a radical was the difference between talking and acting, and it seemed to me that diversity was stuck in an endless dialog leading to no action. In only seeing the same old I was failing to see the different new that slowly moved forward breaking new ground while resting on the foundation of the same old.
I remember learning from Jim Banning the concept of "Yes, and . . ." in 1986. It's taken me a long time to fully apply this to my perspective on the old and the new. It is vital that the discoveries made by those who came before us are rediscovered and rediscovered and rediscovered. Just because some people have moved into new territory beyond those discoveries does not make those rediscoveries any less important nor does it mean that the new territory is any more important than the old discoveries. Yes, and . . .
Will Barratt is an old white guy of privilege with radical creds going way back.
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