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Followup meeting
Aug. 22nd, 2020 05:07 pmAs a followup to this outraged post, the teacher wrote back with an apology and acknowledgment that the movie was a poor choice, and offered to meet. I've known her for a long time as both teacher and bodyworker, and I've just been reading "The Inner Work of Racial Justice" by Rhonda Magee which urges us to stay in conversation about these issues, so I agreed.
It was a good meeting! She had done her self-inquiry work beforehand and shared her process without defending it, which was basically, "I labeled it as being about race and didn't re-examine that before assigning it to this class." And she listened to my concerns about it. She plans to apologize to the class, and had already added an extra class at the end of the five meeting series to discuss anything that came up, so we can discuss it further then.
It was a good learning experience, in the best sense of the phrase, for both of us. Anti-racism is a constant learning process for all of us, and having compassion for our mistakes is a big part of that. I think the meeting went well in part because neither of us landed our stuff in the other person's lap, and there was willingness to be open as well as caring on both sides.
It feels slightly anti-climactic for me, I think also in a good way. It's resolved. I was heard. There was no malice involved. There isn't ongoing angst or fear or discomfort. I can return to the class with confidence that the problem will not recur.
I would prefer that it hadn't happened and I had gotten to absorb a marginalized person's words for that class period instead. And, this is how it is in our imperfect world. I'm grateful that she's showing up and taking the risk to offer the class at all.
It was a good meeting! She had done her self-inquiry work beforehand and shared her process without defending it, which was basically, "I labeled it as being about race and didn't re-examine that before assigning it to this class." And she listened to my concerns about it. She plans to apologize to the class, and had already added an extra class at the end of the five meeting series to discuss anything that came up, so we can discuss it further then.
It was a good learning experience, in the best sense of the phrase, for both of us. Anti-racism is a constant learning process for all of us, and having compassion for our mistakes is a big part of that. I think the meeting went well in part because neither of us landed our stuff in the other person's lap, and there was willingness to be open as well as caring on both sides.
It feels slightly anti-climactic for me, I think also in a good way. It's resolved. I was heard. There was no malice involved. There isn't ongoing angst or fear or discomfort. I can return to the class with confidence that the problem will not recur.
I would prefer that it hadn't happened and I had gotten to absorb a marginalized person's words for that class period instead. And, this is how it is in our imperfect world. I'm grateful that she's showing up and taking the risk to offer the class at all.
