Week 15: Not The End

Little did I know that this class would lead me to me to experience some true moments of real knowledge. I’m not talking about science and all the educational stuff that one can read about in a textbook (I never attended one of those scientific lectures--surprising), but rather those things that can only be learned by human experience. I certainly don’t mean to say that I have some sort of right to think that I “know” what some of the speakers have gone through, or that I can fully relate to them, but I could feel the honesty in many of their words. I’ve realized that one of my favorite parts of being human is our ability to share stories and personal memories with one another. Several of the lectures I attended involved this exactly, and those were probably the ones that will stick with me the most. Lots of people can speak in front of crowds, but not everyone has the ability to touch others with their thoughts. I feel grateful for having had the opportunity to hear a wide variety of stories, from individuals of many backgrounds.

I got a taste of what it was like to be transgender, a gay black man, a woman who has had an abortion, a man who has been in a wheelchair almost his whole life, a “bro,” a Muslim, a Sikh…the list goes on. Although I am none of these, that does not matter. The point is to realize that these are not merely categories, but that these are all people whose experiences often overlap. We all share the same strain of being human, so it boggles me to think of how inhumanely we have treated one another in the past. And unfortunately it is far from over, but I’m glad that classes like this exist and help us see things differently—in a much more broad and hopeful way.

This course, in a combination with others that I've taken this semester, has made me more critical (yet also more caring I’d say). I gave a presentation in my Islamic Arts of Africa class that spoke about the “Western” gaze on veiled women of the Middle East. Although public speaking is not really my forte, I left that worry behind as I got caught up in the material and discovered how stereotypes are rampant even in today’s pop culture. For example, I used a Bollywood music video for a popular song called “Mashallah” to show how Orientalist themes are still present today. Before this semester, I may have not even thought twice about the silly music video, but my awareness has shifted a little as a result of these classes. I hope it continues to expand and transform as I grow older.