Prompt-Critical Reflection 6: Contesting the dominant narrative: Counter-storytelling and humanization. Your research.

Reading: “Life is no Disneyland” Research: A Structural or Root Cause Issue Related to Your Community Partner

“I want to tell the stories that the rest ignore.

Photography is the tool that allows me to show my view of the world and the lives of my people. I’ve lived through turmoil and misery in my country, Mexico; yet, as an immigrant individual, I’ve seen the beauty of human triumph.

I hope my photography inspires and captures the life that surrounds me.” YUNUEN BONAPARTE, from her website.

What is the counter-story/How can you bear witness? Yunuen believes that the way she is able to “give back” is through the way that she can tell and shape stories: “I have the right perspective to tell this story like no one else, through my eyes” (“Life is No Disneyland”, 112). Illustrate a “counter-story” per your experience thus far that refutes a dominant narrative about the people you are working with.

So What? Do any of the issues discussed or illustrated in Yunuen’s story intersect with issues that people at your community partner site may be impacted by? Pick one and briefly discuss and/or illustrate why you believe this is so.

Some of the Issues mentioned or discussed:

• Gentrification of neighborhoods that are historically low-income people of color.Immigration policy and implications for education and life in the U.S. (Study: Marin City, Canal among Bay Area Communities at High Risk of Gentrification)
• The hardships and suffering to escape poverty to come to the U.S. and start a new life (per “Negative Growth” from a previous week’s reading)
• Vulnerability to exploitation and human rights violations.
• Adapting to a new school system and access to higher education. (Tuition and all related expenses).
• Internalized oppression: “Even when I’ve come so far, it feels like it just happened by chance and something’s always telling me I don’t deserve it” (110).
• Why are the facts about the effects of DACA on recipients significant? How do they tell a counter-narrative about immigrants who migrated without documentation?(109) (The current situation with DACA? leaves all of these people in limbo.) A full timeline is here — about to come up to the Supreme Court on Oct. 28.
• Actually following your passion in the face of so many different pressures….. “Who told you that you can do what you want in life” (108).

Now What? Your research: What is the structural issue/cause that you will research?

Post the name of one article that you have found so far for your annotated bibliography. You don’t need a full annotation, but a brief overview of what you learned from this article.