My Ambitionz Az a Ridah...

I’ve been helping a professor on a project to incorporate multiculturalism and the infusion of diversity within our existing curriculum for the past year. It’s a really interesting project, and I am more than willing to put as much energy that I can into it, and I would love to see the day that it fully develops. But I am finding that I am plagued with an issue that I know I will face time and time again in the Public Health arena: How do you get a message to be heard? Our student group had a meeting last night that I was supposed to present this issue to that was slated to go from 5:30pm-6:30pm. Unfortunately, dumb Bay traffic made me hella late, and I didn’t get to campus until about 6:10 or 6:15. “Whew,” I thought, “at least there’s 10 minutes left to share what I have.” But as soon as I got there, the student group was taking off. Huh? Granted I was late, but there was still a good 10 or 15 minutes left for me to discuss what I had. I realize that this topic really needs more than 15 minutes to discuss, but all I was asking for was a start. Ultimately, the program is what we make of it, and I want to make sure that EVERYONE’S voice is heard. Maybe I’m being a bit too sensitive about this, but I gotta say that it was a let down to see people leave as soon as I got there. If I knew someone was coming to share something important, that has the ability to affect my learning and my practice, I would stay. But, I guess it’s just on to plan B. I just don’t want my professor and I to go at this alone. We are thankful that we have some people offering ideas and helping to shape this project, but in my opinion, more work needs to be done. I refuse to give up on this project! “Isms” affect us in so many ways and in so many capacities – be it racism, sexism, classism, ect. The discussions of these topics are never easy, but must be addressed if we ever plan to grow and heal from the sting they leave behind. It’s also important to highlight the positive in these situations as well – finding commonalities in order to help us grow together, but I guess not everyone is on my hype so to speak. Hopefully people we feel me on this one day in all completeness. But like a discussion we had in class a few weeks ago, some folks just aren’t ready for a message right away – it takes for them to experience and fully understand what you’re trying to get across before they finally “get it.” Like I said, I’ll keep trying with this – one minor set back won’t stop me. Again, many thanks to those that are helping with this project and hung around last night– your voices and thoughts will not go unrecognized or unheard.