By Stephanie Korteweg

Do you remember your childhood the way I remember mine?

Water gun fights, hot summer days, swimming pools, imagining that you somehow, by some miraculous event, can run faster than the day before. Clenched teeth, you muster up every ounce of your energy to run with this newfound supernatural strength. You run so hard that your body feels like at any moment you could come teetering down, but in sheer delight you are convinced that the next time you can run a little faster still.

I remember as a child I wanted to be a super hero. At the ripe age of three I was convinced that I could fly. Why not? I had seen plenty of super hero with capes flying on TV. They looked just like me, sans the fact that they were another gender or at least 20 years my elder- duh, they were human, and as luck would have it so was I!

So one day in my Wonder Woman PJ’s I decided to put my flying skills to the test. I climbed up on the couch, and with a half-hearted jump I landed on the ground – unhurt and undeterred. I needed to go all out if I was going to put my super powers to the test. Hands out- just like in the movies. It needed to be done. I needed to show the world human flight was possible. So this time, I decided I needed to get on the highest point of the couch, the arm rest, and jump from there.

I didn’t need to be a wimp about it anymore, it was all or nothing, baby. I was in! I was airborne- for a millisecond. The next second, is when my face made contact with the coffee table. It was then I decided to put my flying ventures to rest, at least for a while. My mom said, “Steph, you can’t fly-even though you saw it on TV, that’s make believe. You can do other things, but flying is not something you can do.” Feeling a bit disappointed, and a little silly, I had to make an early visit to the dentist.

Fast Forward ten years and my dad had several rental properties that he would rent out to older widows. Every weekend we would load up the lawnmower and head out to these properties. I coveted the time with my dad, working together on the yard. It was hot, dusty and dirty, and I didn’t really like cutting lawns, but I do love time with my dad! Every time we would finish, my dad would MAKE us go and talk to the older ladies. We would always bring them lunch, and sit and talk to them. This was NOT my favorite part. I would ask my dad, “Why do I have to sit and talk with them? I don’t even know them. And why do we always bring them a meal?”

My dad, explained that these women don’t have any family nearby and they enjoyed talking to me. It was the least I could do – no excuses. I needed to sit with them, even if it was just enjoyable to them, because they had no one else.

Looking back on my life lived – having traveled to over 15 countries I see the same wonderment, joy and vitality in the children around the world. That thirst for what is possible. The question of what can I do? The need for guidance and safety in the boundaries, “no you can’t fly, but you can do other things.”

At the bottom of every basic human need is the need for connection. Taking time to sit and talk with someone else. Someone you wouldn’t normally talk to. Not for their good, but for yours. You see I learned something, when you take time to talk to someone, you place value on them. I am marked. I am convinced. People are worth it. Little or big, everyone needs someone.

January is National Mentoring Month. There are about 15,000 students in WISD, and most of them need a champion. Someone who will sit and talk to them. There are lots of ways to get involved. Do it! If you have 30 minutes once a week- there is a place for you!

The beneficial effects of mentoring are well documented. The mentoring organizations in Waco have gathered together because we see the need for connection, guidance, and mentoring. Want to get involved? I’d love to hear from you! Go place value on a kid! You might just even find yourself enjoying it.

Resources for learning about mentoring in Waco:

• www.mentorwaco.com
• www.antiochcc.com/connect/impact-waco/

Contact info for Stephanie: [email protected]

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Stephanie Korteweg is the Director of the STARS Mentoring Project at Antioch Community Church. She is happily married to Jeremy Korteweg. She graduated Baylor and taught in WISD for 12 years before becoming the Director of STARS. She and her husband love to travel and do anything outdoors. Their love for God is what compels them to serve others. She is committed to placing value on children and contributing to the betterment of the city.

 

 “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike” –Maya Angelou

 by Amber Jekot

In a city of residents dedicated to addressing poverty and hunger, in a city with nonprofits aplenty, in a city where zeal for addressing these concerns is even a part of our city’s governance, we find ourselves proud of this strange gem of a place – Waco, Texas.  While our pride is justified, we must also admit the broken reality that dividing lines between neighborhoods, races, and socioeconomic classes linger despite our well-intentioned attempts to address them.

Perhaps part of the reason these divisions persist is the language we use and the story we tell about our community.

The language we use forms our reality.  A recent study by Feeding Wisconsin found that the way we speak about hunger dictates how people respond – or do not respond – to this challenge.  The study suggests that by utilizing shocking statistics, by telling the most devastating story we can conjure about those in poverty, and by neglecting to tell the success stories of our community, anti-hunger advocates actually do more harm than good for the cause of change – by unintentionally making hungry people seem “different.”

A distance between people is created when the pitiable reality of hunger conflicts with the universally held value that no human should have to experience hunger.  This value is especially strong in America, the wealthiest country in the world, where, though the reality of hunger “should” no longer exist, 1 in 5 Americans are food insecure.  The Feeding Wisconsin study found that when one’s values conflict strongly with reality, blame surfaces.  In this case it is blame of the hungry people: “there must be something wrong with them for hunger to occur here.” With this in mind, maybe the story we tell about our community needs to be reoriented. Perhaps linguistic alterations can help break down barriers between “us” and “them.”

John Steinbeck, author of the classic The Grapes of Wrath, shows us the faces of hunger in a way that breaks down the barriers between seemingly disparate groups of people.  The reader is drawn into the epic journey of a struggling, yet inspiringly resilient family who experiences hunger as a result of the 1930’s dust bowl. The reader is invited into a distinctively unfamiliar reality, yet becomes an ally of the protagonist, the Joad family unit, by developing a deep knowing and understanding.  The storyteller invites us into an authentic relationship that bridges the distance between “them” and “us.”

Steinbeck’s mantra throughout the book cautions the reader to be wary of confusing effects with causes: “These things are results, not causes. Results; not causes; results, not causes” (Steinbeck, p. 152). The hungry in Steinbeck’s novel and the hungry in the Feeding Wisconsin study are subject to the same common mis-assignment of cause. We don’t believe people should be hungry, yet people are hungry. This harsh reality rubs painfully against the grain of our values. So, to reduce the pain we come to believe that hungry people must be different from us.  They must be the cause of their own plight. We need to question this assumption about cause with more depth.

For example, individuals who are having a difficult time paying for food are often blamed for making unwise financial decisions.  They are criticized, for example, for purchasing simple pleasures when they could be saving up for rent. If we consider this criticism through the lens of the idea that we are all more alike than we are different, we can begin to recognize that spending beyond our means is an American problem, not just a problem for the poor.  As a graduate student, I can attest to this.  My fellow students and I sip our overpriced caffeine fixes while at the same time complaining about loans we’ll be paying back for the next fifteen years.  The mortgage crisis that played a fundamental role in our country’s economic downturn was partially caused by middle class individuals spending beyond their means.  Banks even participated in this irresponsible spending behavior by offering subprime loans.

College students, bankers, homeowners, and those who are struggling to buy the healthy food they need are far more alike than we are different.  The difference between these groups of people is not just that one group is financially responsible while the other is irresponsible. We all make financially irresponsible decisions.  At least part of the difference is that systems in place make it easier for some groups to recover from their irresponsibility while making it likely that others will fall farther behind.  Paying back a payday loan, paying back credit card debt, and having the government help out a financial institution, are very different support systems with very different consequences.

The Feeding Wisconsin study found that for folks to recognize and acknowledge the whole range of causes of hunger, we must tell the story in a way that acknowledges that we’re all really more alike than we are different. The desire for financial security and breathing room within one’s budget, the need for someone to help us out every once in awhile, and the goal of striving towards a better life are universal values and needs, not just values and needs of a particular group of people. Narratives like Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath help to give faces of strength to those who need a little help and those who, in actuality, are much more like us than they are different.  Just as Steinbeck narrates a story that bridges the gap between the “us” and “them,” so can we.

Stories of strength and resiliency of those who experience hunger are widespread in our city: the single mom who, never having maintained a living wage, is now taking night classes because she wants her children to have more opportunities than she ever had; the man who works 70 hour weeks just to give away his money to those in need because “he knows what the struggle is like;” the woman who skips a day of work to advocate for her child’s education and makes concessions to her own health on behalf of her family.  These stories represent individuals who — not too unlike those who are well fed — have hopes and dreams for themselves and their families. They just need some support as they move towards their respective goals.

Our city exudes resiliency, strength, and potential. Let us breathe life into our community narrative and believe the best about our neighbors. Waco, join me in working to engage more with people who upon first glance seem different. Let’s tell a better story.

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Today’s Act Locally Waco blog post is by Amber Jekot. Amber is an 8-year Waco resident who works as a graduate assistant at the Texas Hunger Initiative. She is finishing a masters of social work at Baylor University and a masters of divinity at Truett  Seminary.  She is passionate about the intersection between food, justice, and community and has been known to take trains without knowing her destination.  You may contact her via email at [email protected].

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

 Sources used in this post

Feeding Wisconsin (2014). Reframing hunger in America. Research presented at the Texas Hunger Initiative Together at the Table Hunger Summit.

For access to the presentation: https://baylor.app.box.com/s/xykec2gcq9s5m70i0obi/1/2601980659/22198738747/1

RTI Intl, Center for Health & Environ Modeling (Jul 2014). Current and prospective scope of hunger and food security in America: A review of current research. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International.

For the full report visit: http://www.rti.org/publications/abstract.cfm?pubid=22989

Steinbeck, J. (2006, 1939). The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin classics. New York: Penguin Books.

 

 

by Kyle Massey

In last week’s post, I challenged white readers to acknowledge their privilege, their whiteness, and indeed their racism. I have found when we are challenged for our whiteness, the tendency for most white people is to fall back on our sense of fairness, sensitivity, and democratic inclusiveness. Responses like “How can you call me racist?” are common. This defense question rebukes the assertion of privilege and contends “How can you call me, of all people, racist?” This type of comment is often followed by a recounting of various moral principles that go into great lengths to position most whites as “good people.” Statements like “What more can I do?”, or “Please tell me what I am doing wrong?” are questions frequent in these (often tense) exchanges. When told, a more explicit denial often commences, making extensive use of the word but, saying “Yeah, but do you see how that’s not my intention?” or “Yeah, but do you see the complexity of the situation, here?” The primary goal is self-preservation. Feeling good about oneself takes precedence over the difficult work of identifying and acknowledging whiteness and privilege.

Addressing white guilt or racism?

As I said last week, as a white man I, along with other antiracists born into a white supremacist society, continue to work at acknowledging and unpacking my own privilege. Born into a racist society, we find ourselves thrown into a situation that is not originally of our own making. To address this, some whites try to distance themselves from notions of whiteness and from racism, arguing they would unchoose these if it were possible. Whites often squarely position genocide, slavery, land theft, lynchings, and de jure segregation as part of a past that can no longer be changed. Dismissive notions like “the past cannot be changed and anyway slavery is illegal today” offer reassurance to some whites by discursively transporting themselves to a place of imagined innocence. As a cure to white guilt this is an effective strategy; but it does nothing to challenge racism, the actual problem.

Too often, antiracist activities are focused on alleviating our white guilt which keeps whiteness at the center of antiracism. To pursue social justice, however, we have to decenter whiteness from our efforts and programs for social change. Among other things, this means critically reevaluating our notions of morality: how we understand fairness, how we understand what it means to be a good person, how we understand what it means to be generous or sympathetic or tolerant or a good listener.

Inclusiveness for equity

As antiracists, we need to come together to work for meaningful change, and surely inclusiveness should be one of the central goals. Inclusion would seem to represent an unproblematic, pro-diversity stance, but it is often misused and should be considered carefully. Just as colorblindness shields whites from having to recognize or take responsibility for racist conditions, inclusion is often used to suppress the acknowledgement of conflicting interests. In my experience in schools and on college campuses, I have heard notions of inclusion invoked to criticize people of color for organizing among themselves. Some whites complain that Black fraternities and Black sororities, for example, are overt examples of racism since they seem to contradict efforts for inclusion. Similarly, a Black women’s network that organizes such things as breakfast groups and Bible studies among its members is sometimes criticized by white people for its non-inclusive nature. These criticisms harness a selective narrative of history and ignore the fact African Americans were excluded from joining white Greek organizations for many years. They silence the daily microaggressions experienced by minority populations, minimizing (and sometimes ridiculing) the importance of empowerment within community. Rather than disrupting these important social activities among marginalized members of our population, our efforts for inclusion should be focused on strategies for dismantling structural racism. Working for equity in our society’s institutions and policies, antiracists focus on achieving a fairer distribution of the benefits and burdens of public policy.

Charity vs. Social Justice

There are numerous causes and issues that need an antiracist framework if we are to realize real and lasting change. Whether our efforts are directed at issues in criminal justice, education, health care, employment, or housing, for example, we must work for social justice. Charitable acts such as donating to food banks or raising money for under-funded schools are essential to reach the immediate needs of disadvantaged in our society; but no amount of charity will ever be enough to bring about real change. Whereas charity is directed at the effects of injustice, its symptoms; efforts for social justice are directed at the root causes of social problems. In other words, social justice addresses the underlying structures or causes of these problems. So, while we should continue to ensure our food banks are well stocked to meet the immediate needs in our communities, we should also critically examine the reasons why so many people in our communities are living in poverty in the first place. And why is it that a disproportionate number of those in poverty are people of color?

Public education is of critical importance to all communities, and as antiracists we should be committed to equity in our education system. We should be asking important questions about current trends in our education system such as: “Why are schools that serve more students of color more often than not the same schools are the most underfunded?” and “Why are schools in low-income neighborhoods that serve a large number of students of color constantly under threat of being closed?” These negative consequences of our current “accountability” culture do indeed effect people of color and their communities much more so than other groups. This is a large part of why I have taken up some of these related issues in public education, advocating for new policies and legislation to help close the opportunity gap in our education system.

We should all get more informed about local efforts underway aimed at social justice, and ask ourselves how we can get involved. Groups to check in with include:

• Texas Kids Can’t Wait
• Texas Hunger Initiative
• Community Race Relations Coalition of Waco
• Act Locally Waco

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Kyle Massey is an educator, student, and scholar. Kyle lives and works in Waco, Texas. In addition to his fulltime job as a higher education administrator, in the evenings Kyle teaches undergraduate courses in geography and leadership studies. He is a PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin in the College of Education. Kyle’s research interests include topics related to global citizenship, geography education, and the ways in which various aspects of curriculum and teaching in higher education shape student learning experiences, especially with respect to social and cultural understandings. You can contact Kyle at [email protected], follow him on Twitter @kyledmassey, and check out his website at www.kyledmassey.com

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

Photo 3:

• license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
• Flickr user: Machine Made

Photo 4:

• license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
• Flckr user: Stephen Melkisethian