What does your identity tell us?

Baldwin refers to the paradox of education in his article. The meaning behind it which he himself explains as is, “The paradox of education is precisely this — that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated” (1). He also states that, “the purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not” (1). When thinking about education, I also feel this is very important. We want more leaders in this world, not followers but only leaders who move in a postive and also impactful way in society. James believes society has a different outlook on African Americans that go through the educational system. Something he shares says, “Now, if what I have tried to sketch has any validity, it becomes thoroughly clear, at least to me, that any Negro who is born in this country and undergoes the American educational system runs the risk of becoming schizophrenic” (2). Society has painted this image of African Americans and it seems that they aim to make them feel less as a human no matter what the situation even starting at a young age. People believe that to truly live the “American Dream,” you need to come to the U.S. and build a life here but in reality, I don’t know if that’s it anymore.

Sharing your own story, struggles, and successes helps give people hope. People who may need it the most that you might not even think about. It also builds a sense of comfort because then there’s more people who aren’t feeling so alone in these tough times. In Lorde’s article, she explains, “Your silence will not protect you. But for every real wordspoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences” (41). By her sharing her story, she created bonds. Bonds that she didn’t even know could’ve been made but she spoke her mind and the rest followed. Baldwin explains the inequality that’s faced through the education system with African Americans and it’s not a surprise what so ever but he knows it’s his duty to express the issues because they need to be heard. Jose had aspirations and he wanted to make it to the U.S. to escape from where he was but his path didn’t necessarily lead him to that end.

This helps tie into my work with my community partner because I feel that being honest about who I am and where I come from is a big part of building trust and that’s really necessary when doing these programs. People will acknowledge somebody who has the ability to have the courage to tell your own story. That’s something that doesn’t get looked past because no story should go unheard.

The decision to strive towards unity in self and community is something I really want to aim for when working with my community partner. I really hope I can help be apart of a safe space in the classroom I’m working in so that we can build a bond that they then can take into the real world with them. It starts in the classroom. I feel that my role as being an educated person is to educate the ones around me in whatever way I can. Especially since I’m working in an ESL class this is really where I can be helpful in helping change some people’s life by helping them learn English. By helping them with that then it leads up to more and new opportunities and from there they could be living better lifetsyles. Jose says in his article, “An older gentleman stands up and demands one goddamn good reason not to call the police on me at that very moment. But then we would not be able to have a discussion, I answer.” I’m sure the students in the classroom I’m working in have experienced if not something similar than something absolutely worst. I think of just being with them for the first time and their excitement and enjoyment that they gave off from being able to have the opportunity to be in a classroom to better their education and it’s truly inspiring and I hate that some of them may have gone through this. It’s my role to help them as much as possible.