Standing Up For Rights, Equality, and Justice

What? In “A Talk to Teachers” by James Baldwin, Baldwin mentions how education is a paradox because the point of education is to follow society and be an educated person in life. However, Baldwin mentions that once people become educated people, they find themselves having to stand up against society when he mentions, “I began by saying that one of the paradoxes of education was that precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with society. It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person” (6). Based on this quote, it shows that Baldwin also thinks that education should be used to change society rather than following it. Baldwin also mentions “I would teach him that there are currently very few standards in this country which are worth a man’s respect. That it is up to him to change these standards for the sake of the life and the health of the country” (6). This shows how Baldwin thinks that the purpose of education is to not only change society, but also change the standards set among the country. One of the biggest examples of standards set in this country is the racial unfairness among people of color and white people. Therefore, Baldwin sees education as an empowering tool that must be used to resist the standards that society holds as normal and okay. One myth that Baldwin thinks education should dispel rather than reinforce is the idea of teaching people in schools about the contributions that people of color do for society. In school, many people learn about how people of color are inferior, which gives the wrong message to those people. Rather than teaching myths like that, teaching people about how people of color learn about themselves and how they contribute to the culture will not only help them to learn more about themselves, but also help white people learn about the truth.

Similarly, Audre Lord writes about how it is so difficult for people of color to live in this society. The biggest social myth that Audre Lord talks about is about silence and how being silent is not a good thing. Nowadays, society expects people to be okay with the norms and accept them. Society emphasizes that it is important to be silent and go with the flow rather than trying to challenge authority. However, Lord really disagrees with that myth. She mentions, “And of course I am afraid, because the transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-relevation, and that always seems fraught with danger. But my daughter, when I told her of the topic and my difficulty with it, said, ‘Tell them about how you’re never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there’s always that one little piece inside you that wants to be spoken out . . .” (42). She is emphasizing that it is important to speak up for what is right rather than holding it in. Even though speaking the truth isn’t always easy because it can be scary, it is better to speak the truth and challenge authority, rather than keeping it in and dealing with the injustices in society. Therefore, Lord emphasizes the importance of going against the myth of silence and speaking up for what is right.

The biggest myth that Jose Angel N talks about is the myth of the “cup of promise.” That is because many people come to the United States thinking that they will be able to get a good education, go to work, and eventually be rich. However, the hard realities show that that isn’t always the case. One of the biggest realities that Jose realizes after coming to the country is how immigrants are considered illegal when coming to the United States. In addition, “During the 2016 election campaign” there was a proposal to build a wall” along the Southern border to some swift trick” in order to stop illegal immigrants from coming to the United States. Many people living in the United States used the term “negative growth” to blame it on the undocumented immigrants. In addition, Jose mentions, “Cast as the negative growth of the nation, we have come to be regarded as a disease, an unwelcome presence that must be removed immediately, like a cancer” (Angel). Therefore, the myth that coming to America will be a “cup of promise” is not true. In fact, Angel implies that many undocumented immigrants end up living in America as a shadow that nobody knows about since they don’t have identification. These immigrants still have to work hard and don’t end up getting the life they want. Therefore, Jose speaks a lot about the oppressive society that undocumented immigrants experience in the U.S., and the talks about how the “cup of promise” is nothing more than a myth.

So What? Jose uses his story to tell these truths because he wants to give an example of some of the injustices he encountered as an undocumented immigrant living in society. Telling this truth is essential to his sense of meaning because he is trying to tell the story that remains unheard of among many people who are undocumented immigrants. He mentions a lot about how many undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. and live simply as shadows, but are forced to go through so much pain and suffering. He chooses to live his life as an ethical being in the world by sharing his story and trying to do something about undocumented immigrants being separated from their families due to the government and the negativity that people living in the U.S. are showing toward them. In sharing his story, he is trying to show people that don’t agree with immigrants coming to the country his perspective and tell them why undocumented immigrants come to the United States. He even mentions, “My loss, however, is not mine alone- those who voted to tear me apart from my wife and daughter and from Chicago, wish is my home, have also lost” (Angel). In mentioning this, he tries to tell the people that it is not only the undocumented immigrants that experience loss, but it is also the people showing negativity toward them that also experience the loss. Therefore, by sharing his story and identity, he tries to relate with undocumented immigrants and help people who experience animosity toward undocumented immigrants understand why they are wrong.

Baldwin uses his story and identity to tell these truth in order to show the injustices that people of color are facing once they become educated people. He uses his story to tell the world how he feels by drawing on how he felt when people called him the n word. “In order for me to live, I decided very early that some mistake had been make somewhere. I was not a ‘nigger’ even though you called me one. But if I was a ‘nigger’ in you eyes, there was something about you something you needed” (Baldwin). He says this in order to show people that he is a person that has value and meaning too and calling people the n word is not okay. He chooses to live his life as an ethical being by educating people to stand up against society rather than letting people call people of color names that are not okay. In doing this, he encourages people to speak up for what is right so they are not oppressed and looked down upon by others.

Finally, Lord uses her story by describing the fact that she is a back, lesbian woman and talking about how she can be depersonalized as well. She states, “Black women have on one hand always been highly visible, and so, on the other hand, have been rendered invisible through the depersonalization of racism. Even within the women’s movement, we have had to fight, and still do, for that visibility which renders us most vulnerable, our Blackness” (Lord 42). She really does not like the idea of silence and encourages people to stand up against it. Telling these truths are essential for her sense of meaning because the truth of speaking out against what is wrong allows a person to grow. Lord even talks about the importance of speaking up against silence when she states, “But primarily for us all, it is necessary to teach by living and speaking those truths which we believe and know beyond understanding. Because in this way alone we can survive, by taking part in a process of life that is creative and continuing, that is growth” (43). This is something very important to Lord because speaking up for what is right allows people to grow and survive, and it also helps other people that are being oppressed find their voice to also speak up for what is right. She chooses to live as an ethical being in life by encouraging all people of color that are being oppressed to find the strength and courage to fight for the rights, justice, and equality that they all deserve.

The idea of standing up for what is right and speaking out against society and standing up for what is right is relevant to my life today because I can also identify with the minority since I am an Asian woman. Standing up for what is right is relevant to me because I can also stand up for rights for women such as equal pay. This is relevant to my work with community because although I am not physically standing up against society, I am doing so indirectly by ensuring that all people at Davidson Middle School get the help they need rather than just the people who are privileged and have lots of money. This is equally relevant to my sense of meaning because I have learned from Lord, Baldwin, and Jose that people are being oppressed in so many different ways. There is so much that can be done to help these people, and therefore, one of the biggest meanings in my life is to help all those who are being oppressed. Standing up for justice, equality, and rights for people of color further develops my own sense of meaning in life.

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Now what?: One of the principles I can use and apply as I work with my community partner this semester is collective work and responsibility. As a college student, it is my responsibility to help the children that need my help. I will apply it to work with my community partner this semester by working with all the children that need my help and doing more than just my responsibility to help them. When I say this, I mean doing my best to actually help them rather than just being there because I have to be there. I think a good example that showcases what I am saying is listening to a child read. Listening to a child read is actually one of the most exhausting things I have ever done since I constantly have to correct them. However, I have one of two options. I can either just let the child read without correcting that child or stopping that child when he or she makes a mistake. Of course, that option would be so much easier because I don’t have to use as much energy to teach the child. I could either do that or I could correct the child whenever he or she reads something incorrectly and teach the child what certain words mean. Even though that option is much more exhausting, I am going beyond my responsibility of just hearing the child read and doing my best to help the child get better.

I feel that my responsibility as an educated person is to help all those who are less fortunate than I am. My job is to teach people right from wrong and spread the knowledge that I have onto others that are willing to learn. My work with my community this semester is supporting this goal because I am teaching underprivileged Latino students the knowledge that they are unsure of. I am helping them succeed in their academics, and I am helping them do well in school so they will go on and do well in college and eventually have a good job. In Jose’s piece, he uses the term “negative growth” to describe what people think of undocumented immigrants. He states, “Cast as the negative growth of the nation, we have come to be regarded as a disease, and unwelcome presence that must be removed immediately, like a cancer. This signals another kind of negative growth: a contraction of America’s promise to welcome the tired, huddled masses” (Angel). Angel describes how people in America think of these undocumented immigrants as part of the “negative growth” , and many people see them as terrible people. By helping Latino students, I am creating a huge impact because I am showing them that not all people think of Latino undocumented immigrants as terrible people. I am offering them my help and my support, which is something that they would not think they could get, considering the fact that people are blaming them for the “negative growth”. Therefore, my help and support for these children has an enormous effect in showing that these people all have dignity and rights, and they all have the right to have access to the support and help they need to be successful.