Generative Questions
Nathan Eckstrom
Generative Questions for Language, Power and Democracy
August 14, 2011 1. How much of myself can I change and how much of myself can I only become aware of?
I was inspired to ask this question after watching ‘Mirrors of Privilege’. It is also related to reading Paolo Friere’s ‘The First Day of School’ and Ian Lopez’s ‘White by Law’. I want to answer this question because I am nervous about how much of my own identity I might be unaware of. I am thinking of the man in ‘Mirrors of Privilege’ who asked himself “Where did that come from?” That comment shook me. Friere inspired me to admit a lot of this nervousness to myself and to some of the other cohort members. The structures of power have been in place for such a long time, that it scares me to think how they must have affected me. If I see a white supremacist beating a black man, I need to be able to place myself somewhere in the system of privilege that makes him feel justified in doing that. I am used …show more content…
I want to explore how far my imagination can take me. I believe that the ‘educated hope’ that Cornel West and Paolo Friere write about is possible. I need to do the work to imagine a path to that kind of hope and that kind of future. From the ‘Pockets of Hope’ article, I can see that I can’t walk the path alone. I need to imagine the future for myself however, so that I can utilize the power-with. If I don’t have the path before me clear, I don’t think I will be very good at finding strength with others. I also need to answer this question in order to be capable of the kind of self-care that I think I will need. I don’t want to take care of myself by escaping the world. I want to be able to care for myself by going back to the world that I can imagine. After reading about the inequities in California in Pedro Noguero’s ‘City Schools’, I felt that I needed to imagine some way out of the dilemma that he
Generative Questions for Language, Power and Democracy
August 14, 2011 1. How much of myself can I change and how much of myself can I only become aware of?
I was inspired to ask this question after watching ‘Mirrors of Privilege’. It is also related to reading Paolo Friere’s ‘The First Day of School’ and Ian Lopez’s ‘White by Law’. I want to answer this question because I am nervous about how much of my own identity I might be unaware of. I am thinking of the man in ‘Mirrors of Privilege’ who asked himself “Where did that come from?” That comment shook me. Friere inspired me to admit a lot of this nervousness to myself and to some of the other cohort members. The structures of power have been in place for such a long time, that it scares me to think how they must have affected me. If I see a white supremacist beating a black man, I need to be able to place myself somewhere in the system of privilege that makes him feel justified in doing that. I am used …show more content…
I want to explore how far my imagination can take me. I believe that the ‘educated hope’ that Cornel West and Paolo Friere write about is possible. I need to do the work to imagine a path to that kind of hope and that kind of future. From the ‘Pockets of Hope’ article, I can see that I can’t walk the path alone. I need to imagine the future for myself however, so that I can utilize the power-with. If I don’t have the path before me clear, I don’t think I will be very good at finding strength with others. I also need to answer this question in order to be capable of the kind of self-care that I think I will need. I don’t want to take care of myself by escaping the world. I want to be able to care for myself by going back to the world that I can imagine. After reading about the inequities in California in Pedro Noguero’s ‘City Schools’, I felt that I needed to imagine some way out of the dilemma that he