conversations of color event
pless hall 12/04/08
Along with several ladies from the cohort, I attended the conversations of color lunch at pless hall this past thursday. Several students from Steinhardts different programs were gathered not only for free lunch but also for an opportunity to discuss social action issues with a group of peers, faculty and staff.
At this gathering, we made holiday cards for service men who are out fighting for their country. As everyone was eating and making cards, people began to discuss important social issues that they were involved in. Amongst the topics discussed, was the genocide in darfur, breast cancer awareness, and abuse of women with disabilities. We also discussed the notion of being supportive and the notion of actually being active in making a difference. i think this point drives the notion that social justice issues require social action for their to be a change or difference made.
The conversation at this event made me realize that there is much more that can be done in terms of making an impact on a social justice issue. I think it is important to remember as future educators that we are to equip our students with the skills necessary for them to make decisions that positively impact the society. We should encourage our students to ask whether it is enough to walk around with a pin supporting a cause or whether it is more meaningful to actively engage in causes that mean something to them.
I think conversation and awareness are important tools to motivate people to think about social issues but it is action that leads individuals to impact many people at once.
Attending this lunch was helpful because it made me think about different skills I could potentially teach my students when discussing important social justice issues.
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Sounds like this was a helpful event! What a cool way to get conversations started - making cards! It is an interesting topic: being "supportive" versus being "active". I never really thought about how much of a difference there really is between these two things. People often walk around with pins on their jackets and you think "Oh, that's nice that they're supporting ______", but are they REALLY supporting it? Maybe/maybe not.
It's important to bring this up to students when discussing important issues like genocide. Especially if you are discussing ways to take social action, it's important to tell students that wearing a pin is good, but usually not enough. It's necessary for them to know that just because they are wearing a pin to support something does not mean that they are doing enough to really try to stop it. Without discouraging them from showing support in these kinds of ways, explain to students ways to go further into showing your support in more active and truly helpful ways (like protests).
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