What Am I Getting Myself Into?
After going over a few different options for this cultural immersion project, I think I've come up with a game plan. I've had contact with many different colors, cultures, religions, etc., but what I kept coming back to was the desire to spend more time with African American people. Of course, I do have some African American friends, but aside from spending a small amount of time going to a Caribbean club in Boston, my friends are usually the minority in our group encounters, and I am not.
Years ago, I lived in the East End of Portland on Kellogg Street. On my Sunday morning walk or bike ride to work, I would always go by the Green Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church on Sheridan Street. Beautiful music was always exploding from the building, and it really sounded like they were having a good time. I always wanted to go in and never did. I think this is my chance. I will be attending a service there this Sunday, May 18th.
I have to admit I am pretty nervous about this. I am a white, non-Christian (really non-religious) woman. My father was a non-practicing Catholic. My mother was a Protestant who sometimes practiced and sometimes did not. I walked away from religion as soon as I could. I am very spiritual, however. I often find myself connecting to Spirit via music, so in that sense, I am excited about this experience, and I think that is a big reason I am drawn to this church. There is also the color of my skin. I do worry I will be judged because of it. I worry that this assignment is just another opportunity for a white person to exploit a person of color. I only hope my own deep interest and sincerity will overcome that possibility. How will I convey that, though? What will I say when asked, "what brings you here?" Ultimately, it is the assignment that is driving me to it.
Picture of some of the Green Memorial Congregation, taken from their facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Memorial-AME-Zion-Church
posted by Sonya Theriault @ 2:36 PM
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1 Comments:
This blog has been prepared for a class project. Here is the assignment:
During the first week of the 7 week summer course, students must start planning for the Community Immersion Project. The purpose of this project is to allow you to expand on your boundaries by putting yourself in a setting where you are the cultural minority within your community and develop skill sets to start examining oppressive actions that go on in your community and learn to become an advocate.
You must first identify a minority community of people outside of your own cultural group that you identify within your own geographic community, learn about their strengths, challenges, needs, and the opportunities; research the community response in context of experiences of others in similar situations locally and nationally, and become an advocate around issues of social justice and equity. This may be any setting within your own community (school, place of worship, department store, restaurant, social service agency, outdoor festival, etc.), where you might have encountered or know about presence of people from a different cultural background, but had not previously had a need or opportunity to interact with.
The most difficult part of this service learning project is for you have decide on the cultural group/community you will reach out to for this project. Remember, your honesty in trying to find avenues to immerse yourself in cultures you have had no prior contact with will help you most in this assignment. The minority community may be different from you in regards to variables i.e. age, class, color, disability, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, immigration status, political ideology, race, religion, gender, and/or sexual orientation. Once you identify a few people in your community based on the cultural group you feel you have had least experience interacting with, you will need to explore different places where you can go to in order to connect with the members of the identified community. You can get help from me in helping you decide regarding the same.
Once you have identified a cultural group in your community, document your “game plan” by sharing with your classmates and myself via a blog entry by end of the day during the first week, Sunday May 18th. You will have to email me the link to your blog via email, and I will post it on Blackboard for all to view. You must make efforts to connect with the identified community members either by yourself or with help of friends/family members; and observe your feelings, reactions, and experiences as you interact with them. Once you go in that community, you must find people to speak with that can help you to understand the needs and strengths of that community as well as the challenges they face. You must list 5 needs of the community so it may be necessary to speak to more than one person. In addition, you will need to list 5 aspects of the community that are unique or vary from qualities in the majority population. Also, identify stereotypes, prejudices, and differences in communication styles and cultures that you experience in your visit. You need to immerse yourself with members of that community and help find ways to educate others through your blog about the issues facing the community that you interact with. Make sure you look into the ethical social work practice issues that might emerge because of cultural differences.
5
Based on all the information you collect via the community immersion experience as well as your research on that cultural group, you will update the blog you have created to inform other classmates and community members about what you learned about culturally competent practice by interacting with members of this group as well as your general experiences in completing this assignment. You should be updating the blog weekly for the 5 weeks (Week 2-6) for this summer course, and all the blogs should be completed by all by end of Week 6 Sunday June 22nd end of the day.
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