A DJS Journey

Hello all... I just wanted to give you an update on the life of a senior, Jazmyn Carroll... a PLU student trying to figure out life in a day. This past week, I have been bombarded with questions of identity... Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that I will be leaving my PLU home at the end of the school year, these questions of identity and where I will be after college has seriously got me stumped! Stumped to the point that I consider myself a walking vessel with little to no cognitive capacity to learn strenuous concepts. This is extremely distressing because I consider this hodgepodge of a beautiful, yet messy mind of mine, to be taking a toll on my well being. For reassurance purposes, I am aware that I am experiencing cognitive dissonance and plan to be at 101% Jazzy sometime in the near future. Jazmyn Carroll Anyways, what has got me questioning who I am is the religion course I am currently taking on Christian Theologies... bad enough I am trying to be an A student

I have often witnessed Orientation Guides attempt to describe the Diversity Center to new students, and while many hit key points, I have never heard a succinct and satisfying way to describe it. So, here's my attempt:  I want you to envision the Diversity Center, but picture it as a box shaped void, devoid of the people, couches, colors, and identity. Begin filling the box with words; good and bad, gendered and non-gendered, hateful and kind. Now, add ideas to these words, let them flow from your mind and into this space. Some of these ideas attract each other, others repel, still others spin about each other seemingly engaged only to disappear into the growing mass of thoughts whirling about in this void. While you're envisioning this conglomeration, picture your parents and your great-great-grandmother. Picture the president and your high school bully. Picture the world wars, and picture smallpox. Include the native people displaced and destabilized in colonial countries

Clanddinin and Connelly (2000) state, “our research interests come out of our own narratives of experience and shape our narrative inquiry plotline” (p.121).  My own interest in social justice education is both professional and personal.  I have had a career in multicultural affairs for nine years.  I support students from various social identities and work to create awareness of dominant and subordinated identities, ally as a verb and not a noun, and microagressions.  Personally, W.E.B. DuBois, in his seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk spoke of “double-consciousness” or two selves that are in conflict with who we are and what people expect us to be.  I have spent most of my life being an “Other” but also know what it’s like to “Other” someone else based on some of my dominant identities.  As a multiple identity being, I in fact belong to two worlds, one of privilege, and one of an empowered person of color.  Meaning that I understand racism, oppression, and privilege, and how

Another great story about another great Diversity Center Alum! “Rae-Ann brings a tremendous amount of energy and expertise to this very important hub of student life.” Rae-Ann Barras (left) '12 dCenter Alumnae

As we strive for justice there is continual pressure to conform to majority norms in effort to be free from harm. We in turn have to teach our children not to wear hoodies or dark colors. “Wait, Don’t be suspicious.” This still doesn't relieve the threat on the lives of our children. Why are we constantly being told to change who we are to be accepted, to be safe, to be respected, and loved? Skin tones and the culture in which they are perceived to align with meet varying hardships, pressures, and threats that are not to be ignored. Our browns are beautiful; my black is beautiful. Colorblindness is another way many seek to silence me and my experience, as a person of color, saying it must be so, in order for POC to be treated as equals. To that I say... See my color Treat me as equal anyway Hear my pain Respect my experience anyway My color is not hindering me From working hard but It hinders your perception of my work ethic My color does not delay my intelligence I