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
to talking about the way that my grandparents were as if it is separate from me. I want to find out how much is still with me, and how much can change now that I am 32 years old. I want to answer this question in order to think realistically about the self-work I need to do. 2. Can I imagine a solution for the broken world that we live in?
I was very affected by Maxine Greene’s ‘A Light in Dark Times’.
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
describes. 3. How do I talk to the friends, family and community members in the white community who are also benefiting from a system of white privilege?
This question was also inspired by the video ‘Mirrors of Privilege’. I have a very hard time explaining the system of privilege without sounding self-righteous. I have had friends and family look at me as if I was putting them down. The phrase that I remember from the video is “go talk to your people.” I take that very seriously, but I am not yet prepared to do it effectively. I read the ‘Teacher Autobiography’ with great interest, because I am trying to think of my own autobiography. I don’t know how to tell it without alienating the people that I have associated with all my life. I don’t yet know how to tell my story without condemning myself and my friends and family. I want to find a way to talk to them that raises us up, and points to a way that we can make things better. Right now, I find myself dragging the white race through the mud, and leaving my friends and family feeling like I want them to give up their homes and other inverstments. This is a very difficult question for me, since I will be relying on them for support during my years of teaching. At the same time that I want to admit my part in an oppressive social system, I don’t want to force other people to go there with me.