The pictures are from this morning. On our way to the picket line. Walking the picket line. The group of workers that I spent the summer with including my supervisor's son. Me, after the picket line.
“Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They’re what make the instrument stretch—what makes you go beyond the norm.” ~Cicely Tyson
This was the quote from my daily calendar. Today was an incredible day. I went to the picket line with the workers I have been with all summer and the painters. It was a marked difference between the picket line in Chicago when we marched around the block, to today's march with just a small tribe of men, one woman, and one child marching for better working conditions for painters. Most of the chants were in Spanish, though some were in English. It was a very different, but much more intimate in feeling. I was much more connected to these men. They have seen me all summer going into the offices and have been working with me.
I have faced many challenges this summer, most significantly was a language barrier. I began the summer struggling to understand. My first day, I remember that F. my supervisor did not speak to me at all in English. I knew he could speak, but he told me through another co-worker's translation that he wanted to make sure that I learned Spanish, and so would only speak Spanish to me. His insistence changed however when he learned that I was here to learn from him, from this experience, and that I really did want to learn Spanish. I hope that I can continue to learn this language as I get back into the swing of school.
One of the starker realities that I have continued to encounter over and over again is being the “token”. I have told the workers that it doesn’t bother me on their behalf to walk into a building and to be treated a certain way by the professionals that we ask to speak with. What I find disturbing by this “tokenistic” trend is what this says about the Anglo community. Is this community that I have grown up in so afraid something different- of people who are different that we cannot acknowledge our commonalities? While I do recognize that this does not affect just the Anglo community, I have only witnessed this in this context. I guess the bottom line for me is the overwhelming disappointment of what this means for humanity.
I have two more work days here in Phoenix. I am facing the very real problem of trying to remain affected by these circumstances when I will be living 1725 miles away or roughly 26 hours. Is out of sight really out of mind? Does absence make the heart grow fonder?
1 comment:
Yeah; being the token is fun. And yes white people are horrified of other people and their expectations of how the great "other" ought to act is very set. Its one of the principle ways societies react to the outside JM's African kids or my ghettolings act the same way.
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