Don't Limit Me

I think most human beings respond the same way when they see or hear of someone with some type of disability. "Oh I feel so bad" .. "That poor child".. It's second nature. What most human beings don't understand what they're doing when they say or think these things. What this kind of sympathy does is separates themselves from the individual that they are referring to. It puts you (the person without a disability) in a more privileged position. I'm not saying I'm perfect, there have definitely been times when I have passed someone in a wheelchair and thought to myself how awful it must be for them. But I have no idea what their life is like. Maybe there are things that they can do a whole lot better than I can (for example, maybe they're better at not procrastinating their blog posts). What I'm trying to get at here is they have a disability, but their disability is not who they are. The abilities of an individual with down syndrome is directly related to what we expect of them. The minute we stick them in an self-contained classroom we are saying that this is all you're ever going to be, you can't function in a regular ed. society, here color in this book. And maybe it's not conscious, maybe we just don't know any better. After all, knowledge is power. But we can't just stick students, or anyone for that matter, into these "check here" boxes based on what we assume we know about them and their capabilities. It's not always so black and white, we need to do more exploring of the gray space.

We're More Alike Than Different

Teacher to parents: About THAT kid

Social Justice Event Reflection

I recently attended 'From Belly Dancers to Burqas: Media Representations of Muslim Women', a speech presented by Dr. Afshan Jafar. At the beginning of her speech pieces of paper and pencils were passed around to everyone. Looking around I was surrounded by a bunch of scholars, students, professors who all seemed to be very passionate about what was about to happen. I was just here for my education class. Needless to say, I was very intimidated. My immediate thought was "oh god shes going to make us talk, I need to get out of here right now." But I reluctantly stayed. She started off by asking all of us to fill in the following, "Muslim women are ________." She told us to write down the first thing that came to our minds, don't think about it too hard about it. The first word that popped into my head was oppressed; Muslim women are oppressed. I was very hesitant to write that down on my paper. When I read that sentence back to myself I realized how wrong it sounded, but it was my honest thought and they didn't ask us to write our names on it or anything so I put my head down and passed it in. After they collected everyone's papers Dr. Jafar began to read what everyone had wrote aloud and asked us to take note of any pattern in the words that were used. As she began to speak I started to feel a little better about my submission because it turns out some of the most commonly used words were: conservative, oppressed, timid, controlled. Dr. Jafar told us that she liked to start with this activity because it brought up two main points: 1) Where do we get this idea that Muslim women are a particular way? and 2) People are very quick to answer this statement about what Muslim women are but when posing the question "Christian women are_____",  people immediately have questions as to which kind of Christians you are referring to. We assume that when we say or hear "Muslim women" we know whom we are talking about and that every Muslim women's experience is the same. Dr. Jafar was born and raised in Pakistan and said that the way she experienced Muslim was very different than a Muslim women in Iran; that Muslim is culturally different just like Christianity. Over the course of her speech, Dr. Jafar showed us various images of Muslim women in the media. The first image she showed us was one of Princess Jasmine from the Disney movie, Aladdin.

In this image Jasmine is seen wearing a sultry belly dancer's outfit while working as a slave to the antagonist of the movie, Jafar. Princess Jasmine is seen wearing a belly dancer's outfit throughout the entirety of the movie. This is very uncommon for a typical Muslim woman, however this is a stereotypical westernized view of a Muslim woman that caused Disney to receive a lot of criticism. Another issue with Princess Jasmine's image is aside from the fact that she has darker skin and hair, she has typical "white" features. In fact all of the "good" characters in the movie were portrayed with white characteristics (Aladdin was modeled after Tom Cruise), while all of the villians were portrayed as "barbarics from the middle east". The next image we were shown is a very famous picture that appeared on the cover of National Geographic.

This image was titled "Haunted Eye's of an Afghan Refugee's Fears". This image was captured by a photojournalist during the Soviet War in Afghanistan. When you look at this picture with this caption, the girl looks scared. That is exactly what the photojournalist wanted you to think, that this girl was afraid for her life in her own country. We learned that the photojournalist knew nothing about this girl, not even her name, he just asked her to sit and pose for him and sent her on her way. When I first saw this photograph I assumed the same as the photographer. If you look at this picture without the "Haunted Eye's of an Afghan Refugee's Fears", this girl actually looks really pissed off. Who are you to slap me on the cover of your million dollar magazine without even bothering to ask me my name? We actually have no idea what was going on with this girl, we just assume that because she is a Muslim woman, this is what she must be thinking/feeling. After 9/11 this photojournalist was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to go back to Afghanistan and write another piece on this girl, and how she views the War on Terror as a Muslim woman. There was only one small issue, he had absolutely no idea who this girl was. Forensic scientists were brought to Afghanistan to perform iris matching, and eventually they tracked her down so she could appear on a second cover of National Georgraphic.

Her name was Sharbat Gula. The above image is presumably her, holding a picture of herself from the first National Geographic, covered head-to-toe in a burqa. As you can see here, "Found" is written across her picture, as if they rescued this woman. The only reason she was missing in the first place is because they never bothered to learn her name. Many images were taken of Sharbat, including ones of her not wearing her burqa, opening up about her life to the journalists. This is the image they chose for the cover because they knew it would sell, who wouldn't want to read the story about how the privileged whites rescued this oppressed Muslim woman? It's a feel good piece. What many people don't understand is that there are actually many different motivations for wearing a hijab or a burqa. Yes, some countries mandate that the women wear these, but not all countries do. 25 years ago in Pakistan, burqas were exclusively worn by the working-class women, this was a symbol of wealth. You can pick your jaws off of the floor now, Muslim women are allowed to work! Some choose to wear the burqa or hijab to show their religious devotion, and some choose to wear or not to wear them to make a political statement. We can't just assume that we know the whole story. The fourth image that Dr. Jafar showed us was quite possibly one of the most disturbing images I have ever seen.

This photo is of 18 year old Afghan, Aisha. As you can see the piece is called "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan." Leaving the people of western counties to believe that this is something that happens to all Afghan women if they try to flee their country. This is not apart of Afghani culture. This was a very devastating circumstantial case brought on by Taliban influence. In the article the author writes, "I thought long and hard about whether to put this image on the cover of TIME. First, I wanted to make sure of Aisha's safety and that she understood what it would mean to be on the cover. She knows that she will become a symbol of the price Afghan women have had to pay for the repressive ideology of the Taliban." Lets think long and hard about this... would we put a picture of a domestic violence victim on the cover of Time magazine? No, because it is a disgusting invasion of privacy.  But they made sure to highlight that Aisha will be receiving reconstructive surgery fully covered by the US. Round of applause for the white people yet again, go us!

The picture above is the last image we were shown, titled "Choice". As you can see the Muslim woman is strategically placed (maybe even photo-shopped) next to a flag to insinuate that this is a political issue, that this woman is oppressed, and that what this woman is wearing is forced upon her. Maybe there is some truth behind it, but like I said there are always different motivations behind wearing a burqa. But the real issue with this photo is that it assumes that western women have a choice. Most people assume that choice is free, however, choice always comes at a price. Choice is structured by social pressure. Some women may say, "no I chose to wear this bikini". Well you chose to wear that bikini because that is what is expected of you as a woman. This issue is not of what the women in this picture are or aren't wearing. It is about what women are or aren't expected to wear. The issue is that in our society our clothing is a direct reflection on who we are as a person. Oh she's wearing a short skirt and a low cut top, she must be a slut. Oh she's covered head to toe in a burqa she must be oppressed. Women are reduced by what we wear. Clothes do not define who you are as a person, your goals, your morals. We normalize what we are surrounded by, but who is anyone to say what is right and wrong to wear. Clothes are just clothes. I got a lot more than I expected out of this speech, and at the end I revised my initial statement.

Muslim women are women. 

I related this to Linda Christensen's piece, Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us. Christensen stated, "Many students don't want to believe that they have been manipulated by children's media or advertising. No one wants to admit that they've been "handled" by the media. They assure me that they make their own choices and the media has no power over them." I don't think that anyone wants to admit that they've been handled by the media. Until I was forced to think critically about this issue, I never realized the magnitude of the impact that the media actually has. The only reason I felt inclined to make my initial statement that Muslim women are oppressed is because that is what the media has taught me. I also related this to what Peggy McIntosh's colleague, Elizabeth Minnich, said in White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack; "Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work, which will allow 'them' to be more like us.'" The United States is known for sticking our nose where it doesn't belong. We are always going overseas to "save" these Middle-Eastern countries to develop them and make them more like us. Because everyone wants to live the American dream, right? 

This video is a similar speech that Afshan Jafar delivered at a TEDx Talk at Connecticut College. 
National Geographic's piece on Sharbat Gula: A Life Revealed
Time Magazine's story of Aisha

What it really means to be a public school educator today

If you get a chance, check out this article!

Literacy with an Attitude

 

For my service learning project, I tutor 3rd and 4th grade students in a Providence school in math. This week however, I actually had the opportunity to sit down and talk with my placement teacher about literacy. I am in ELL/ESL classrooms,  and until this week this was unbeknownst to me. I have had the opportunity to sit down and work with many of the students who all seem to have a pretty good grasp on the language. However, their reading scores are remarkably below bench mark. I had the chance to look at my 3rd grade teacher's progress monitoring chart. The students are tracked according to color with green being proficient, yellow being average, and reds being the lowest performing. The standard third grade student is expected to read between 70-100 wpm (words per minute). More than half of the students in this class were reds reading between 3 to 10 words per minute. This took me back, I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing and I was terribly saddened. More than half of those third grade students were reading at below a kindergarten level, and because of great government programs like No Child Left Behind, they just keep getting pushed through the system landing them where they are today :) The Rhode Island Department of Education identifies low performing schools as Priority, Focus, or Warning schools. Depending on how poorly the school ranks determines the level of monitoring and intervention done by the state.  If you look at the website, all of the lowest performing schools are located in Providence, East Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls. These cities of low achieving schools are also among some of the poorest cities on the state. Coincidence? No Child Left Behind is an oxymoron. Maybe we are physically carrying our students to the next level. But are we really sending them off as capable as they possibly can be? My placement teacher disclosed to me that she has to fight tooth and nail to get her students the assistance they need. We are failing our students. The children are our future. We need to invest more time into them. We need to make sure we are doing everything in our power to bring them up as capable human beings. We need to advocate for them, but we also need to make sure they are given the opportunity to adequately communicate their voice.

Between Barack and a Hard Place

I have been staring at a blank blog post for about 10 minutes trying to formulate words. After watching Tim Wise's speech and doing some research of my own I really just don't know what to say. I have said this before, and I'll say it again. Most people today would love to believe that because our President is of color, racism isn't an issue in this country anymore. Clearly that is so far from the truth. Exhibit A) a series of tweets posted shortly after Barack Obama was reelected into office for a second term. Scrolling through these tweets I had a knot in my stomach. I am disgusted, and to completely honest I am ashamed to be "melanin challenged" (as Wise calls it). I thought of what it would be like for President Obama or his family members to log onto Twitter after a well earned victory and see all of that hate, and it breaks my heart. But unfortunately, I myself am apart of the problem. Never in my wildest dreams would I say things as derogatory as these people did, my mama taught me better than that, but I haven't done anything to try and stop it. I have never been a fan of confrontation. If somebody says something to me or in my presence that offends me or makes me feel uncomfortable I usually keep my comments to myself instead of speaking out. And this is why it is 2014 and racism still prevalent. Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to admit that they're apart of the problem. And nobody wants to take a stand.

"We can never be satisfied as long as a negro is a victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality." Martin Luther King Jr. delivered that message in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in August 1963. We have come a long way since then, but not long enough. August 2014, 51 years after  Martin Luther King Jr. delivered that speech, Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager was shot to death by a Caucasian police officer. There has been much speculation and controversy surrounding this subject. Whether or not there was a struggle for the officer's gun does not justify this boy's death. Brown was shot six times. Excessive force? This video was made by a group of children and the FCKH8 organization in response to the shooting, and the issue of racism in our country.

"Racism isn't over, but I'm over racism"

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

I never really considered myself a feminist, although my views aren't so black and white. I've always wanted the typical "happily ever after"; meet my prince charming, fall in love, get married. I have to assume that this dream comes from my love of Disney. A couple years ago I decided to end a relationship that I thought was my happily ever after. It took a lot out of me. For a long time I put another person's feelings before my own. When I was upset about something, I bit my tongue. I was complacent, as any other Disney Princess would be. When I was younger these fairy tales that Walt Disney created were so idealistic; being older I see things a little differently. The typical Disney Princess has a symmetrical face and a tiny waist, she doesn't voice her opinions, and waits for a man to come to her rescue. The views of how a woman should look and act are very subtle to a young girl, and also very impressionable. Disney has recently started to incorporate a more powerful female role into their movies, for example, Frozen. Queen Elsa is the protagonist of this film, she creates an empire all on her own without the help of anyone let alone a man. However, if you ask a group of four year olds, the majority of them will tell you that Elsa's younger sister Ana is their favorite. Why? Because Ana finds her one true love. I still have the dream of meeting my prince charming and living happily ever after, but I have other dreams too. I want to be able to stand on my own two feet and create a name for myself and not be defined by a relationship. I decided to include the pictures above from Beyonce's "Flawless" video (all hail Queen Bey). Beyonce is a huge inspiration of mine because she has the best of both worlds; she is a successful, empowered woman and she has one of the most idolized relationships in today's pop culture. WOMEN, WE CAN HAVE IT ALL! It is time for the media to start recognizing that.

On an unrelated note I wanted to share this video of a Special K commercial that is trying to promote positive body image for women, I think it is great and I wish stores like this actually existed!