I’ve started a new class. I’ve started a new term.
I’ve started a new path.
I think I’m starting to do things in new ways, but… THAT is for later evaluation.
For now, we’ll stick to the topic: The HUSH that is being ushered into my life.
I’ve joined a class at Duke Divinity School that I am very much looking forward to. This class will find me partaking in learning with a set of residents of the local penal institution. I’m pretty happy to be here! It’s really an honor to have the opportunity to learn alongside these women!
Let me start at the beginning…
First, our class and local volunteers attended training for several to receive a “blue card” that allows us to access the facility. The training was overly successful in making the volunteers afeared of the residents! WAY TO GO BUREAUCRACY! If fear was the goal, the training was wildly successful! TOO successful!
One can’t help but wonder if the facility actually wants volunteers to go and spend time with the residents. Considering the methods and commentary used in the training (and they serve good cause, I’m sure), it’s a wonder that anyone would even go back! SHEESH!
So that you get my gist, the facilitators were expressing their truths: the truth according to them, their training, their expertise, their experiences, their facility, and their rules. THAT is all well and good. From the outside-looking-in, I am sure these facilitators (women) do not consider how their demeanor, word choice, exposure, and expert testimony colours the judgment of willing volunteers. I wonder…
These are things that just must be said, and then…
…and then…
…I wonder if culture is the largest influence here.
Our facilitators were black women. I wonder how much culture colored their presentation. I wonder if the blackness of these women added a hue to this presentation that wasn’t intended to be there. At the same time, it wasn’t intended to be absent.
These women were making a point. They did so boldly. Justifiably. Yet, and still, I wonder how many of my co-participants–even beyond the Duke students–could take away what was intended without marring their assessment with the blackness of the presenters. I wonder…
And THAT is what I do NOT want to discuss!
Let us move on expeditiously!