September 13, 2016 - 16:38
here are a few things i have on my mind after today's class. some questions, some requests, some feelings. for myself and others. i want to hear back on these. let me know how you're feeling, in comments or in person or however you like. if you'd like.
hear trauma, let trauma sit. don't question it or qualify it. bad stuff happens and it's bad.
zoom in, zoom out. how can we keep the big picture and smaller details balanced? what is the value and use of example? personal connection?
when is optimism a powerful tool and when does it act as erasure?
racism and antiblackness are affecting many of us concretely and constantly, even if we are not paying attention to it. we carry traumas in and out of the classroom. it's hard to study race while we are living it, even though there is certainly value in that study. my health has declined as a result of this study. i want to engage in this study and it is hard. beloved triggers memory of racialized sexual violence and i can't stop pacing. i pace and i shout and i cry and i smoke because there is pain in recognition. i do not know what it is to be sethe, but i know what it is to live in a world where the powers that act against her also act against me and mine, in updated form. it is so damn hard to do this and i want so much to do it.
this stuff is hitting us all differently and sometimes it is hard
Comments
something i left class
Submitted by calamityschild on September 13, 2016 - 17:11 Permalink
something i left class thinking about is what it's like to display, to put on exhibit other peoples' trauma. i wonder if we have inadvertently done this in our classes. i wonder if this is unavoidable when trauma is on the syllabus.
it is hard.
thank you for your words.