Don’t you think it’s time for another post?
Well hello! Welcome back to my sporadically updated blog :-)
Just got back from a well deserved, week and a half long vacation in NY and I am feeling refreshed and rejuvenated! It’s a new year, full of promise (unlike 2011…) and I want to start off with a post because I haven’t written as much lately.
I know a lot of people who are teachers, and I envy them for their admirable hard work. Trying to teach someone something new is a challenging feat. For me, learning has always been straight forward. Here are facts, and facts (whatever they may be) are never wrong. For example, early on I learned that 1+1=2. I look at the whole equation (rather than individual factors) as a fact, one that has proven empirically, beyond a shadow of a doubt, so I need not trouble myself with actually learning how to do it. I just accept it the way it is written and proceed on to the next problem. It’s like a fast track to memorization. I was able to absorb large quantities of information in this manner. Of course this requires an extreme amount of faith in the public education system and the people around me… I’ve always been the type to go with with the status quo, but fortunately my mother was there early on to guide me and from there I was able to develop my own intuition in order to know when to question things. I know I could never be a teacher because I don’t know how to apply what I’ve learned in bite-size, digestible lessons for students. I just expect people to absorb the data I present and regurgitate when requested. Obviously, that is not applicable in the real world because we all have different learning styles and trying to cater one technique to multiple individuals is not possible.
Recently I’ve become a fan of The Big Bang Theory. I’m glad this show has gained in popularity! It’s about time nerds got some love and attention (and not just around ComicCon). I’m a nerd at heart, even if I’ve dumbed down a bit since I was last in a class setting… (Some days I’m Sheldon, other days I’m Penny) One thing I reflect on while watching this show was how much more attention I wish I paid to Physics! I hated Biology with a fiery passion (too many details for me to absorb in large quantities). I enjoyed Chemistry, but I was always on the outs with Physics. It didn’t seem all that interesting. Can you imagine trying to get students interested in sound waves? It didn’t spark anything inside of me. Our teacher had a Doctorate degree, but couldn’t impart the knowledge that he had learned to us, because well he didn’t know how to teach! It was painful for all involved. How could a man so smart be so uninspiring in a classroom? When I watched an episode on Nova (does that still come on?) about String Theory, I was riveted! So I started paying attention in class hoping that we’d get to the cool, exciting parts (it never came). However, in that long, boring process, one little nugget of information from that uninteresting class five years ago would stick with me, hiding in the corner of my brain, hoping I’d make use of it one day. That day was today. I sat on my bed, meddling with the latest gadget I had bought. I couldn’t understand why this electronic, which was working just fine a few days ago, had ceased to work. What had I possibly done wrong? I went to three different stores looking for alternate batteries and I was about to fish out the receipt to send the item back (reluctantly, since the store was in New York) when the lesson from years ago hit me over the head. I had taken out a piece of plastic from where the batteries had been resting. It finally dawned on me that the plastic was actually a conductor, used as a conduit for electricity! TA DA problem fixed! Now bear with me, because this post is about more than a lightbulb moment (pun intended?) about electrical conductors!
The inspiration for this post revolves around the way we absorb information. I was able to use something I had previously viewed (albeit through a memory) and use it as a learning lesson for the present. I’m pretty sure that if I had tried to Google my way through my dilemma, I would not have found an answer. This was a reminder to challenge the way I answer life’s problems, as going with conventional wisdom will often causes one to overlook other innovative ways of solving problems.
Now to why we’re here… If you’re reading this post, you probably found it via Twitter. I get all of my content through there. Earlier today, I read a tweet from @ColonelTribune: “Joran Van der Sloot pleads guilty to killing that young Peruvian woman: http://trib.in/wuKINt Still no charge for Natalee Holloway in Aruba.”
I felt momentarily taken aback… “that young Peruvian woman”? Natalee Holloway wasn’t referred to as “that young white woman” I felt indignant, yet I didn’t know how to respond. If I proceed in accusatory style, the tweeter will go on the defensive and we won’t get anywhere. This is generally how it goes with any controversial discussion regarding gender, race, sexuality, etc. I’ve seen conversations that last for days and go nowhere. I wanted to make a statement, not a complaint. Complaints go unnoticed, tossed in a pile with the rest on the Internet. Everyone has something to complain about, so how do I make an effective point without going through the usual channels. (What’s my usual channel, you ask? I lecture people.) I almost went that route – a lecture on how women of color are perceived in the media if they go missing or are killed when compared to the coverage that white women receive. I could see their reaction now – an exasperated sigh, eye-rolling, etc. – I envision them telling me that I need to calm down, or that I’m overreacting. I often hear, “It’s not that serious, or you’re reading too far into it.” By that point I’m now doubly frustrated because now my judgement is being called into question and nothing could be more infuriating than trying to make a point only to have it turned around on you.
I take the first step and tweet @ColonelTribune: “I know that you were trying to give a frame of reference to readers, but you should actually use her name.” Nothing personal, not attacking, just a friendly, informal suggestion. He tweets back: “Thank you so much for the feedback. It can be tough to fit all the news in 140 characters, so I try my best.” It feels like a cop out in my head, seeing as how her name would have been fewer characters than what was actually typed, but instead of calling him out on excuses, I change tactics. He actually engaged me in a convo, astonishing for someone who is following over 20K people and has over 800K followers. Also, he took the time to reply to me in response to a tweet that only got one RT. In other words, the article wasn’t exactly a hot topic (too many people concerned about whether or not the President’s motorcade would interfere with their drive home during rush hour traffic). Lecturing him wouldn’t get me anywhere. I wanted to engage him, again, this time more concisely and more effectively. I racked my brains to figure out what would appeal to this man’s sensibilities when it hit me. Maybe I don’t need to be the one to making the argument… I recalled seeing a something by the late Patrice O’Neal where he talked about this very topic. Shortly after the death of “that young Peruvian woman” he did a comedy special talking about the value people place on white women over WOC. However, he broached the topic in a clever manner. He asked people for the name of the woman who had gone missing while vacationing in Aruba. The audience promptly answered, “Natalee Holloway!” He then asked them to name the woman Van Der Sloot had murdered the previous day and no one, of any race, could answer the question. Even with the event in recent memory, the crowd was unable to think of her name, whereas Natalee Holloway’s would linger in their minds indefinitely – a powerful message on how we all internalize things. I decided to send a YouTube video of the clip to @ColonelTribune: “I wish I could really explain to you why that was not P.C. but instead let me leave you with this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIM1gU_T2RQ“
I left him with the video and gave him time to view it in its entirety. I didn’t spend the time in between tweets putting him on blast, instead I let him watch it on his own schedule and hoped that he would get back with me to let me know what he thought. A few hours went by and I thought to myself, “Oh well, at least I tried. Even if he doesn’t tweet me, I know that he saw the video and would be unable to ignore such compelling social commentary.” So I let it go and a few hours later I got a response. He thanked me sincerely for my feedback and this time it felt like he got the point I was trying to make. Let me reiterate, I never felt that there was ever any intentional slighting of Ms. Stephany Flores, but I still wanted to convey a point about disparities in coverage between the two women. I was satisfied with the genuinely sincere response from @ColonelTribune and we all walked away richer: he added her name and resent the tweet (without any prompting from me) and I learned that by challenging my own conventional wisdom, I can achieve goals thought to be insurmountable (like navigating awkward conversations – online & IRL - about race & perception in the media)!
