WP3: Expanding My Worldview
As I have explored different viewpoints and ideas, I have realized that my mindset of only giving credence to ideas that I considered were correct has caused myself to develop a close-minded mindset that created a black or white worldview that did not allow any gray. The consideration of viewpoints and ideas that contradict mine, the ones that I consider correct, have added more context to and sometimes changed completely my view of the world. In considering different viewpoints and ideas, I have put myself in the shoes of others, engendering a greater sense of empathy for others and allowing myself to experience a richer world, one that is not simply composed of right and wrong.
This strictly black and white viewpoint stems from my relationship with my father. Freire describes the traditional relationship between teachers and students in Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed as one in which teachers “talk about reality as if it were motionless, static, compartmentalization, and predictable,” mirroring the relationship I have with my father. In such a relationship, my father gives me advice on many aspects of life, drawing upon his own experiences and the advice given to him by his parents to help me navigate the obstacles of life, hoping that his experiences will save me the time he spent in conquering the obstacles in his life. However well-intentioned my father may be, the motionless, static advice that he passed on only served to emphasize that there was one correct way to do an action and to disregard the wrong way without considering it first.
What is right for some is wrong for others, which is why it is important to consider both sides of a problem. Accepting a static worldview derived from my father’s advice was the easier way to navigate situations in which his advice applied to, but robbed me of the diversity of thought that comes from considering the wrong way and coming to a conclusion on my own. Much like solving a math problem, coming to an understanding of the problem on your own provides greater understanding of the problem than copying the answer from someone else. Consideration of both sides of a problem made me realize that problems are often more subjective because problems are seen through your own worldview, which will be different from person to person. By definition, problems will change as you change the lens that the problem is seen through, and by bringing the subjectivity of problems and consideration of different solutions to problems into my mindset, I have engendered more empathy for others.
This newfound empathy can not only be applied to others, but also to yourself, an idea that I was in dire need of during my college application months. As mentioned in my WP2, I heavily valued my college application results, believing that “if I didn’t get in my dream schools, then my efforts [in high school] would be for nothing.” This narrow viewpoint was heavily influenced by my black and white mindset that was representative of the type of reality mentioned by Freire, in which I considered acceptance to my dream schools as the only reality that would be correct. What I failed to realize was that first, there was no correct static reality as I was not entitled to acceptances at any of my dream colleges, and that second, no matter which college I ended up at, my hard work in high school would serve me well. Looking back on the undue amount of stress I placed on myself, I realized that I overlooked myself when considering who I could be empathetic to, and that I should have been more empathetic and understanding with myself. Empathy is not something that is only reserved for others; it is important to be empathetic to yourself when going through hard times and give yourself space to rest and recover.
Once you do all you can do to succeed, there is no point in worrying about what can happen because it is out of your control. This is the personal philosophy of Shintaro Midorima, a basketball player who is known for his crazily accurate 3 pointers. To ensure that he maximizes his chances of success in daily life, he “always [does his] best, and [he] always [keeps] the Oha-Asa horoscope’s lucky item on [him].” Midorima is a highly objective person who rarely lets emotions affect his judgment, so he saves himself stress by doing all that he can to succeed, and then not worrying about factors outside his control. I originally scoffed at his philosophy, thinking it ridiculous that Midorima could place such trust in a horoscope, but I realized that the philosophy was less about the esotericism of his philosophy and more about trusting in yourself and your efforts. Stressing after I had already turned in my college applications had no effect on the likelihood of acceptance, and only served to undermine my physical health through lack of sleep and deterioration of quality of sleep.
A counterpart to Midorima, a renowned basketball player, would be Ryunosuke Tanaka, a seemingly average volleyball player who is often overshadowed by his teammates. Every 6 months, Tanaka feels like giving up on volleyball, but then he rebukes himself: “Do you really have time to look down like that?” Tanaka displays intense tenacity in continuing to play volleyball against people with greater physical and technical advantages, and because he has to put in much more effort than his teammates and opponents to do well, he sometimes gets discouraged, as shown by the seemingly endless staircase in the video, but always focuses on himself and his personal journey to improvement to get himself out of that rut. Tanaka believes that if he keeps on trying, he will be able to do anything, which is similar to Midorima’s in the regard that they both prefer to focus on what they can do themselves, but Midorima’s philosophy is also influenced by the fact that he is physically gifted, more so than Tanaka. I can highly relate to Tanaka because my success has always seemed to stem from hard work and less from natural talent, like Midorima. The viewpoint that Tanaka provides as an average volleyball player who tries his hardest to do well is similar to my viewpoint, which serves to bolster my confidence in myself. Continue to move forward like Tanaka, and success and progress will come.
Empathy for yourself means to “be more patient and understanding with yourself after failure, learn what you can from your failure, and pick yourself back up so you can succeed the next time you face a problem” as mentioned in my WP2, an idea that I discovered through listening to “Let You Down” by NF. Listening to music on my own, such as NF, exposed me to different viewpoints and ideas expressed by the artists without any influence from others, and was a crucial part of my intellectual development in consideration of different viewpoints and ideas. On “Let You Down,” NF raps about feeling like a failure in his father’s eyes: “Yeah, I guess I’m a disappointment, doin’ everything I can / I don’t wanna make you disappointed, it’s annoying / I just wanna make you feel like everything I ever do / Was never tryna make an issue for you.” I had always felt like a failure whenever I failed to live up to my and my family’s high, almost unrealistic expectations, and I had never listened to a song that I could relate to as much as “Let You Down,” in which NF bares his experiences with failure and his parents. Furthermore, the music video for “Let You Down” has an added layer of meaning visually: the old man who appears in the video is an older version of NF who “stands there watching without making any move to help [NF]” and fails to speak up for his younger self when it matters the most.
The longer I listened to “Let You Down,” the more I realized how absurd my situation was: I and my family set high expectations for myself, and being human, I was not able to meet all expectations. The problem wasn’t with the expectations themselves, but with my mindset: I categorized failure as something to be avoided at all costs and glossed over my failures to meet expectations when confronted with them instead of considering how I failed them, and what I could do to do better next time. Everyone experiences failure because it is a fundamental part of life, so you should treat yourself with empathy when experiencing failure and not beat yourself up because of it.
I regret not using my voice more often to change the expectations of myself, much like how the older version of NF failed to advocate for his younger self in the music video. My mother used to say that “I used to ask the question ‘Why?’ if I was told no to a question” when I was a child because I would try to negotiate with the naysayer to see if we could reach an agreement, and see the viewpoint of the naysayer so I could address any potential issues they saw. However, my willingness to see the other side’s viewpoint to reach an agreement slowly disappeared as I entered elementary school, where the strict guidelines of teaching were clearly laid out and stifled any kind of ideas that did not fall within the guidelines. Freire describes this categorical type of teaching in Chapter 2 of Pedagogy of the Oppressed as “an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor.” Such a type of teaching, the “‘banking’ concept of education,” does not permit for input from the students and discourages any attempts to understand the viewpoint of others or other ideas that contradict what is being taught by the teacher. I have started to unlearn this one-sided mindset as I have transitioned from high school to college, a place that allows for more intellectual freedom than high school.
My culture, Chinese and Chinese-American culture, is not something I need to be ashamed of, but rather something to be accepted and appreciated. As I continued to apply my changed mindset of consideration of different viewpoints and ideas, I came across the rap song “JALA” by Bohan Phoenix, a brash celebration of Chinese culture in America that blended Chinese with English that presented a different viewpoint of Chinese-American culture. At that point, I was in a predominantly white middle school, and I remember so badly wanting to be white that I would “hide my culture” and change my mannerisms in order to fit in, as mentioned in my WP2. Bohan, however, rapped about Chinese-American culture from a much more positive viewpoint (“Wake up, I heat the congee/Chinese no need to remind me”) that was so unapologetically proud of his culture that it made me come to the conclusion that my culture is not something to be repressed. It’s such a big part of my life and my upbringing that I simply cannot ignore it. Getting back in touch with my Chinese-American identity has taught me to be more empathetic toward others’ culture even if it is unfamiliar to me, because their culture is as valuable to them as mine is to me.
As I have grown, I have realized that concepts should be not neatly defined and put in a box on a top shelf of my brain, left to collect dust without any significant change. To do that is to practice the banking model of education, in which you deny the subjectivity of reality and present it as a static reality that is highly resistant to change. This applies to Chinese culture, which I defined as “emphases on working hard, staying out of trouble, and respecting your elders” in my WP2. I used to chafe against Chinese culture because I believed that it was mainly characterized by the emphases I mentioned, but “Kids” by Rich Brian brought a new perspective on Asian culture as a whole and thus Chinese culture. In “Kids,” Rich Brian shouts out Asian kids to “tell [them] that they could do what they want” and encourages Asian kids to pursue their dreams, no matter what they are. Rich Brian’s dream seemed nigh impossible when you look back at it; an Indonesian kid who learned English from rap songs becoming an international idol both in his home country and the West? This dream of Rich Brian was in some ways opposite of the idea of Asian and Chinese culture in my head; he drew attention to himself with his hit single “Dat $tick,” but he also worked hard to improve his English and his style of rapping from “Dat $tick” to “Kids.” Asian and Chinese culture is much more complex than what I first thought. By categorizing Chinese culture so neatly in my head, I prevented myself from incorporating new viewpoints and ideas into my idea of Chinese culture, and deterred myself from accepting it because I painted it as a culture that was monolithically quiet, a quality that I don’t always follow. New viewpoints and ideas about concepts help create a broader view of that concept, and allow you to further explore that concept in its entirety and learn something about it that you never knew before.
Bringing the lessons I have learned about the importance of considering different viewpoints and ideas into my life, I can now reevaluate my relationship with my family, specifically my dad and brother. Because I have learned that different viewpoints and ideas should be considered, this means that I shouldn’t fully ignore the advice that my dad passes on, but instead not view the advice as unchangeable gospel. I can shape my worldview now, and I can take his advice into consideration without compromising any of my ideas. However, my brother acted as a counterbalance to my dad in the family, and stood up for me when no one would, like an ideal older version of NF. My brother “served a lot as [my] parent to child translator” when I was young, and because my brother is 3 years older than me, he was the perfect age to understand both where I was coming from and where the adults were coming from. My brother was the first person in my life who taught me that different viewpoints and ideas could be important when acting as a middleman between me and my parents, and helped facilitate my intellectual journey to unlearn the banking concept of education and accept and consider different viewpoints and ideas as part of a broader view of the world.
As I have progressed on my intellectual journey, I have been exposed to many different viewpoints and ideas that I may not have completely agreed with or I had never encountered before. It is important to consider different viewpoints and ideas because your viewpoint and ideas may not be completely correct, and because those different viewpoints and ideas will engender more empathy for yourself and others as you attempt to understand them through the lens of others’. Ideas and viewpoints are never black and white, correct or wrong; they are shaped by the perspective that they are seen from, and through consideration of others’ ideas and viewpoints, my view of the world has been expanded and fleshed out with the contributions of others, much like how rappers feature on a song and add their own spice to that song.
Works Cited:
Feuerstein, Nathan. “Let You Down.” Perception, Capitol Records/NF Real Music, LLC, 2017, track 6. Genius, genius.com/Nf-let-you-down-lyrics.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Ramos, Myra, 1970.
Fujimaki, Tadatoshi. “Kuroko no basket episode 5 (English subtitle).” YouTube, uploaded by Cabarles, Angelica C., 10 Jan. 2020, https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&t=377&v=YNerBuecdXY.
Furudate, Haruichi. “Tanaka’s Big Moment | HAIKYU!! TO THE TOP.” YouTube, uploaded by Crunchyroll Collection, 16 Oct. 2020, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GLb7Epi24NA.
Imanuel, Brian. “Kids.” The Sailor, 88rising Records/12Tone Music, LLC, 2019, track 4. Genius, genius.com/Rich-brian-kids-lyrics.
Jin, Edward. “金礼华.” My Garden of Songs: WP2 Stories, Medium, 10 Oct. 2020, https://medium.com/my-garden-of-songs-wp2/金礼华-143c6e8e745b. Accessed 31 Oct. 2020.
Jin, Edward. “College Admissions and Self-Worth.” My Garden of Songs: WP2 Stories, Medium, 12 Oct. 2020, https://medium.com/my-garden-of-songs-wp2/college-admissions-and-self-worth-5d9c572ce454. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.
Jin, Edward, Jin, Alex. Interview with my Brother, Google Drive, 2020.
Jin, Edward. “thinking outside the box.” My Garden of Songs: WP2 Stories, Medium, 11 Oct. 2020, https://medium.com/my-garden-of-songs-wp2/thinking-outside-the-box-e7c964aa8d61. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.
Jin, Edward. “to be ashamed or not?” My Garden of Songs: WP2 Stories, Medium, 12 Oct. 2020, https://medium.com/my-garden-of-songs-wp2/to-be-ashamed-or-not-f12c003ee98d. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.
Phoenix, Bohan. “JALA.” JALA (@1580518553), loveloveN¥C, 2017, track 1. Genius, genius.com/Bohan-phoenix-jala-lyrics.
