It is hard to believe that I am already concluding my blog. It seems like only last week I timidly walked into the Multi Cultural Center to start my weekly service. Now I feel like a regular since the kids know me and the other volunteers know me too. The experiences I have had at the center have opened my eyes on the issue of racism and how apparent it is in our society. I wrote in one blog about how I am the minority when I go to the MFC and how the children there are aware of racism around them. I continued to think about racism throughout the semester because it came up all the time. The presidential election, reading Invisible Man, and volunteering regularly always exposed to some context of racism. I also wrote that I always knew racism was existent but I never knew to what extent; this experience opened my eyes to how apparent racism really is. Now I don’t want to sit back and just let racism happen, but I want to stand up to my friends and family who do make racist comments. This is going to be very tough for me because many of my good friends from home are racist and I know if I do stand up there will be lots of controversy which could possibly hurt relationships. But yet I feel that I must stand up for the kids at the center because no child deserves to be discriminated against.
This service semester has also taught me a lot about how much I have changed in the last four years. I think my liberal arts education has had a huge impact on the way I think and analyze the world. I also think that service was the perfect way to really use and challenge my liberal arts education. There were many times throughout my service that I had to use an open mind to respond to a child. One such time was when a child called me “whitey” and I had to politely tell him that was not my name and explain why it was not my name. Now I am confident when I leave Loras that I will be able to make decisions with an open mind so that the best decision can be made. I am not saying that I am good at making these decisions but having this education will definitely help. It will take lots of experience and time before I will become that wise old timer with all the right answers.
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Dave
A moving testimony to how the time at the MFC has brought change to your life. Sounds like the time back home could be rough. Having just spent Thanksgiving with a couple of idiot relatives who asserted that they could never vote for a black man, I have a sense of what awaits you.
Nothing makes you grasp the power of race faster than finding yourself in the minority. That probably did more than all the pages we read this semester. I was pleased that you could make some connections between that experience and our readings, from IM to the Nussbaum essays on the liberal arts.
I was hoping that people would make better use of their learning plans for this final post. Those plans forced you to be specific about goals, etc., and responding to them again at this point in the semester gives readers a more organized view of what transpired at the Center and what you would do differently next time. jw
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