But What Does NCORE Mean?

I’ve spent the past couple days explaining what I did at NCORE and what I did in New Orleans. I’ve claimed to learn quite a bit. But what does this mean for my life and for everyone in general? I can say I learned a lot, but unless I can apply this stuff to real life, it means very little. So here are some things that I am taking away from the experience.

First, I am now more aware of the privilege that I have been afforded being a white male in this white-dominated, patriarchal society. One thing we discussed at NCORE was social identity. I have come to identify as a white male. I am still trying to understand what this means, but I know that I am given a great deal of privilege just by being a white male. I know that I am treated better because of this, and I know that I am given more opportunities because of this. Just knowing this means nothing, though. I have to help make others aware of this, and I have to work so that other races and ethnicities can be given the opportunities that I have been given. I’m talking about an even playing field where the same amount of work by two people, regardless of their backgrounds, will earn them the same reward. My point here is that I’ve given privilege without working for it. I certainly do feel bad about this, but I’m not going to sit here just feeling guilty. I’m going to go out and make sure this unequal system becomes fairer.

Second, I’ve developed more of an understanding of what my social identity is. From what I can gather, I’m a lower-to-middle class, 20 year old, nerdy, heterosexual, white, male first generation college student from the Midwest. To be honest, I only know what some of those things mean to me. Some are more cogent to me than others. I am completely unaware of what my ethnicity is. I want to say I am “American” but what exactly does that mean? This has made me realize that I am still on a journey of self-understanding. I’m thinking I’m going to be learning about myself for years to come. What does this mean for other people? I think this means that others could be developing their identities like I am. Furthermore, someone may identify as something that others do not see them as. So I may call someone African-American, but they could identify as something else. The point here is that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I should let others introduce their identities to me. In addition, certain identities come with drawbacks or advantages due to society and history. It is important for us to fix this because no one should feel like their identity is a curse.

Finally, I’ve learned that society has a long way to go to achieve racial and ethnic harmony. At the moment, there is so much inequality, prejudice, and unpreparedness in relation to race and ethnicity. Our country, and others to some extent, has a lot of work to do if racial equality is ever to be achieved. I realize that we have made some great strides in the past, but we still have work to do. The existence of hate groups as well as the Fisher court case proves that we still need to work. I feel like we are at a place where we can move forward, we can stay where we are at, or we can regress. All are likely options, but they only one we should pursue is going forward. Think about it, do you really want future generations to see ours as a hateful one? Do you really want your children to grow up in a prejudiced society? We have to keep pushing and trying so that the world of tomorrow is a better one.

After all, it would make Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and various other civil rights activists proud of us. 

What I Learned from New Orleans

You all probably know what I learned from the NCORE conference while I was in New Orleans, but I am sure you are wondering what New Orleans taught me about race, ethnicity, and diversity. You wouldn’t think it, but I learned just as much about those topics as I did during all the presentations at NCORE.

For probably the first time in my life, I felt like a minority. I was in a city filled with people who looked nothing like me, came from different backgrounds, engaged in different cultures, and who had been in the city longer than I have. I was only in New Orleans for a couple of days, but I can only imagine what life would be like if I lived there permanently. Still, this experience put me in the shoes of a minority, if only temporarily, and I felt out of place. I am guessing that minorities in this country today must be feeling some of that. I can use this feeling in the future as a peer mentor or a therapist. It has helped me to feel more empathetic towards other races, and I think this is a good thing.

Another thing I learned from New Orleans is that not every city in the United States is the same. I previously thought that a lot of the bigger cities were the same. My only experience with large cities came from my time in Florida and seeing cities like Atlanta, Chicago, and Des Moines. New Orleans is clearly like none of those cities. I’m guessing this mostly has something to do with the location and history of the city. The streets are different from any other city I’ve been through. There are large crowds that sweep throughout the city, and street performers are aplenty. How does this relate to diversity? It shows that cities themselves are diverse. It shows that I have had this preconceived notion about what makes a city in my head, and that notion has been busted. This tells me that I should keep an open mind towards things like this.

Most importantly, New Orleans taught me that I should never go into a situation with stupid stereotypes in my head. Basically, I went to the city believing that it was still majorly devastated after Hurricane Katrina. I believed that gangs ran around the city, and I was going to get robbed while I was there. I had all that in my head, and I am sorry to say that I ran with a stereotype that I heard most often. I am happy to say that stereotype was busted. I know that there may be some gangs in the city and some areas are still in need of repair years later, but all of this was not as extreme as it was in my head. Part of this is general ignorance while the other part is the media making a bad situation sound even worse. I’m glad that the team leaders for my college sent us on a tour of the city, so I could eliminate my preconceived notions. This makes me think about what other cities and people I have preconceived notions about.

So New Orleans helped to enhance my learning about NCORE. But what does this all mean? How am I going to apply this knowledge to the real world? If you want to know the answer to that, you will have to read my final blog post on the subject tomorrow.

Actual NCORE, Part 2

So here we are. Part two of my NCORE experience. This starts on the Friday of the conference week. The keynote speaker of the morning was a wonderful lady by the name of Joy Harjo. She is a Mvskok/Creek tribal member who has made a living with poetry and jazz. She talked about how New Orleans was once home to Native-Americans, and she played a fantastic song with other musicians on stage. It was wonderful. It has also contributed to my knowledge and awareness of Native-American affairs which, if you recall my previous entries, I am very passionate about. Another session I attended that day was an interactive session where we were able to write poetry that related to our social identities. I may not have said this before, but I really like poetry. This session taught me about a new way of writing poetry in addition to allowing me to think more critically about my identity.

Saturday was much of the same except the presenters kept thanking us for coming despite the fact that it was Saturday, and we could have partied hard the night before. I ended up learning about the history of Asian-Americans in the United States which happens to cross over with the history of Hispanics and African-Americans. Did you know that Jay-Z has Asian heritage? Later on Saturday I decided to attend a session about African-Americans because I had not gone to one since the conference started. I ended up learning about HBCUs (Historically black colleges and universities), and how they help students of color better than Ivy league schools. The session taught me a good deal of information and let me know more about diversity. I was happy by Saturday night.

Along with attending sessions, our college’s NCORE team had discussion sessions after each day. Our discussions ranged from undocumented immigrants to the appropriate usage of the “N-Word” and everywhere in between. All of our discussions divided the group, but it was interesting to listen to everyone’s opinions. However, listening to everyone really drained a lot out of me. Our group was incredibly diverse, so to listen to how racial issues affected their life really caused me to change the way I think about the world. I will talk more about that on Friday though.

The point here is that NCORE taught me a lot.

Actual NCORE, Part 1

I suppose you are all wondering what I exactly did at the NCORE conference in New Orleans. Well, I will tell you, but I did so much that I’m going to have to break up my explanation into two parts.

The first NCORE related thing I did in the city was go to the NCORE student scholar ceremony at Tulane University. That’s right; this awesome blogger was awarded a scholarship because the heads thought that I was a great representative for diversity. Honestly, I have no idea why they gave it to me, but you should never look a gift horse in the mouth, right? I met some pretty great people at the ceremony, and I can now add this to my resume which will help me with graduate school. Life is fantastic.

The next day was when the sessions at NCORE started. One of the sessions I attended revolved around the idea of post-racialism in today’s society. The main point here is that there are a lot of people who say we are getting close to ending racism because of some political and social achievements. However, to say this you are ignoring all other aspects of society. I thought this was a great presentation which also served as a way to prepare me for the rest of the conference. The other session I attended that day revolved around presenting the inequality in society in terms of statistics and numbers. I am a fan of statistics, so to see the inequality in number form really put it into perspective. The first day was great, but little did I know that everything would build upon that greatness.

On the second day, I stumbled upon a session that introduced me to the Fisher court case that is currently being decided in the U.S. Supreme Court. This session was presented by OiYan Poon who is not only a very beautiful lady (I kind of have a crush on her), but she is also very passionate about her work. She gave a keynote speech the previous day that informed me of some of the issues that the Asian American community has encountered. During her other presentation she related the Fisher court case to Asian Americans. I’m not one to insert my political beliefs into a blog that no one reads, but I think that the loss of affirmative action in colleges would be a bad idea. Colleges need to allow for a certain amount of diversity because it benefits no one to be around people who only look like them. I became aware of the Fisher court case at NCORE, and I am going to keep up with the news on it because I feel it will be important for colleges and possibly our entire nation.

So I learned a great deal in the first two days. The discussions our group had after each day helped as well (but that’s for tomorrow). Like I said before, each day built upon the lessons and experiences of the previous day, and the final two days were huge in my eyes. 

The Five Days of NCORE

So I’m sure that everyone is wondering what I have been up to lately. I can assure you that I was not eating cheesecake. Okay, maybe I was eating cheesecake, but I was also doing important things. Last week I went to New Orleans, so that I could represent Iowa State at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity. It was a fantastic week with great speakers, good food, a lot of learning, and a lot of humidity. If you have been paying attention to this blog (which I know you have), you will have noticed that a while ago I went to South Dakota, and after the experience, I blogged for five days about my experience. This is exactly what I’m going to for the next five days. I will blog about NCORE, New Orleans, my experience in New Orleans, and what I learned overall. It shall be exciting.

So what should I say about New Orleans? It’s a great city with a lot of culture and a plethora of history. I mostly stayed in the touristy part of the city, but I did manage to get a look at the residential areas, and the areas that were affected most by Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane may have affected the city eight years ago, but it is still a part of the city. Businesses and people in the city explained how the hurricane had affected them and how they did their best to recover from it. I have a lot of respect for the city for staying strong even when things were tough.

I have to say that the touristy part of the city is widely different from any city I have ever seen. I can see the French roots, and the modernity as well. I had seen New Orleans in movies and TV before, but nothing compares to seeing it in person. At times, the city felt like a maze I could get lost in, and if I had gotten lost in it, that would have been fine with me. The crowd of people was a little too much for me, but I guess that’s what a city like this normally brings. This city has a lot in it, and I am saddened that I could only spend six days exploring it.

And wouldn’t you know it; they decided to put a conference on race and ethnicity in this city for an entire week as well. I believe that being accepted for my college’s NCORE program while it was in New Orleans was a blessing. I feel that this city was a great match because of the diversity and racial issues in the city. But this is something that should be talked about in the coming days. So, for now, I suggest you all learn more about the city. Not just the French or Spanish history, but the native-american history as well. It is all very rich.

Also, Bubba Gumps is a fantastic eatery.