Wednesday, June 3, 2009

NCORE and San Diego: Tuesday

So I am letting all who read this now know that this is doubling as my Journal that I have to do for ISCORE so yeah.

Afternoon:

So I arrived at the hotel about the same time as everyone else but since I had been out in the city the day before with my mother, I wasnt exploring like most of the other IAstate students were. However I did go to my frist conference which was called Race and Class Matters Part II: Examining and Understanding Internalized Racism and Classism.

I went to this session having had missed the first session. We started by finishing a movie that they had been watching in part I about gentrification, white flight, and how it affect the value and system of areas in the suburbs and city. the movie was fantastic in itself. it really lets people know how even though they claim the opposite, the government and the economy do put a price on skin color. after that we did a few exercises that focused on self experiences with class and race since the two are seen as impossible to separate from the other.

Learned a few things but mostly the session was a revisit of subjects gone over before and how they apply to oneself personally. The second video though was excellent. it was on how inner city african american girls and teens see themselves and the internalized messages they possess and are aware that they possess. The whole perm issue was brought up as well and made me feel extremely happy that I had chosen to cut mine off for the same reasons they mentioned in the movie. (I'll probably create a separate note for exactly why I cut off my hair)

After my session, all the ISCORE students met with our group leader for group discussion. However me and Jeff had to leave with Todd to go to our Scholars ceremony. So we ended up going to this (Jesuit? Catholic? dunno) college about 20 minutes from the hotel. there was a pretty decent buffet and the school mariachi band who was pretty good. it was super cold though so we werent too thrilled about being outside. so ceremony began, we recieved our awards, and as soon as we could, we left (again is was REALLY cold).

We got back to the hotel just in time to see Tim Wise, who I dragged Jeff to see cause he's freakin' brilliant.
Mostly Tim Wise talked about the so called post-racial era and the paradox and contradictions that that phrase contains. Basically it's people who have never had a good grasp on the state of instituational racism telling everyone else that it's all over and done with as if they are a good authority on it. and Tim Wise's advice? Dont listen to white men's opinions on racism, which pretty much everybody laughed at cause, HELLO? I could go on and on but I will stop there.

anyways after it was over, I turned in for the night.

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