On the elevator ride up to my office this morning, a colleague who teaches in my department mentioned that “he” was her student, that he was a very good student, that she wrote him a letter of reference. She wondered if someone might contact her, try to learn what she might know about him. By afternoon, media inquiries were coming in for faculty and students to share what they know about “him” from his studies here.
He graduated cum laude with an associate’s degree at our college and recently began his studies at the big school up the road. He was even videotaped receiving his diploma, shaking the college president’s hand, and leaping for joy at his accomplishment.
I went to my first class this morning and found it difficult to begin as I looked over the students, my class, our community of learners, and our diversity of learners. Front row left to right – a Mexican immigrant, a Kenyan immigrant, a white American man, a Somali woman who proudly told me she is a US citizen, and an African-American man. Scanning the other rows, I saw a young woman from Ghana, a pregnant Indian woman, and other young students. I remember what the Somali woman said to me the day after the election as she shared that her brother was worried about not being able to return to the States, even though he is an American citizen. Smiling, she said: We have been through much worse than this; we will be ok. Her words were jarring to me, revealing a privilege I live, a privilege I have always lived. I wasn’t sure what my “worst” was, but I’m sure it didn’t compare to her worst or the worst experienced by many of my other students.
She, in her hijab, smiled this morning as I asked if everyone was ok, if they had any concerns. As a class we discussed what we knew, how the media reports during the chaos were inaccurate, and how we wondered what would motivate someone to attack others so viciously. We didn’t need to solve anything today. We just needed to acknowledge that this happened in our community.
Students have been quite respectful to each other in our classroom since the election, and they were respectful to each other today as our diverse class of learners discussed this event involving a former student of our institution, a Somali, a Muslim, a student, a young person. While tragic, I take solace in this moment when respecting our differences allowed us to see how similar we actually are.
