Spring Quarter 2020
“For my visual essay, I decided to make a somewhat unconventional call-to-action poem using personal anecdotes and revelations that have come to me due to the series of unacceptable events that have occurred in the past weeks. Amplified by months of confinement indoors as well as previously shadowed by unacknowledged privilege, the death of George Floyd among many other unjust deaths of Black individuals has sparked in me the desire to do better, to personally do more to fight against racial discrimination. “Black lives matter” was a phrase that I had always believed in, but I had come to realize that simply believing in it was not and is not enough. As an aspiring educator, I must believe, understand, and fight for those three words. While taking this course, I have learned of many inequalities that our diverse youth face in life and within the education system. At UCSD, I have taken many courses that have taught me various equitable solutions to the inequality within our society. However, for the long term, I wish to fully commit myself to trying to change the circumstances that have led to those unfair obstacles. Equity is short-term solution, but justice is the long-term goal. My generation can no longer sit around and wait for change to come. It starts with us. So I hoped to use this poem as a reminder to my peers that it is not too late for us to start growing again. We must grow for the next generation to evolve.”
Kari Kishi
Education Studies
“My goal with this poster was to challenge some of the stereotypes that affect students and the quality of education that they receive. Even among teachers and school administrators, there is often a sense of the “ideal student” or a highly specific set of conditions that deem a student “ready to learn.” In reality, these views are biased and they prevent students from receiving the respect and attention they deserve. All students have a desire to grow and succeed, and all students deserve an equitable opportunity to learn.”
Undergraduate Student
Education Studies
“Prejudice and discrimination are in our society, here or there, more or less. While most people are fighting these harmful intentions, there is always someone who is inciting hatred for his benefits and feeding hate. We have to keep alert with these words and actions, especially in a hard time, when it’s easier to listen to cheap blame.”
Yixing
Education Studies
“In my piece, I wanted to play with the idea that we always see the world through lenses of implicit bias. Much like one’s own eyeglasses, we wear them every day and very quickly forget that we have them on. This picture is meant to help make you remember that we are constantly wearing glasses that shape and warp the images that reach our eye. I decided to make “perception” clear, and “bias” written in shadow across the eye as a physical representation of the fact that our perception of the world projects a bias onto what we see happening. Although I was thinking about race and racial perceptions when making this, I feel like this applies to any situation in which we might judge or react to a certain situation based off of first glance and not stop to consider the way in which our perceptions, past experiences, and social background can bias us in our response. This image is more of a proof of concept, since I do not currently have access to the camera, materials and photo editing software that would make this a much clearer image. The shadow “bias” was created by using a bright light shined on “bias” written in copper wire and attached horizontally to the glasses frame behind “implicit”. I think that photoshop or a brighter light might help “bias” show up more clearly in the picture.”
Bryant Jew
Master of Education/Single Subject Teaching Credential
“Popular media tends to portray individuals of certain ethnic, socioeconomic, and/or religious backgrounds in very negative ways. After being repeatedly exposed to such portrayals, people who have no personal experience with these groups may adopt the media’s views as their own. My aim in creating this piece was to combat these damaging perceptions about “the other” by illustrating that, no matter one’s ethnicity or dress, we are all human, inhabiting the same Earth and striving towards the same ideals.”
Cassidy Wallace
Education Studies
Who Am I?
i am half the oppressed and half the oppressor
half of the enslaved and half the slave owner
how do you navigate through all of that?
two sides fighting each other at all times
but it isn’t like i can hide behind the side with privilege
i may be half of the oppressor but i certainly only get seen and treated like the oppressed
my kinky curly hair will not have anyone fooled
my caramel brown skin will not let me ‘fit in’
i am a person of color
i do not look the same as my brothers
i do not talk the same as my father
i do not walk the same as my sister nor my mother
i was not taught the language of my people nor the traditions that lifted them through the unspeakable tragedies to help keep us together
so who really am i, if not either?
an anomaly is what people call me
so ethnically mysterious that i could belong to any group of people
if you had to guess you would guess incorrectly
you would probably have to ask me where i was from or who brought me to this land
but in reality it was taken from my family before me
and probably by my other half of me
funny, isn’t it?
my true roots are like vines, always intertwining and wrapping up my family tree
that is when i realized something
i am who i am and not who they are
i do bear the scars of my ancestors but the future contains rich promises
a way to create
a new identity
a new culture
and not a way to recreate the past but a better future
one that entails people living together and admiring their skin color
a place that does not judge your gender
a society that accepts whoever you want as your lover
a home that accepts all of who you truly are and not the haunting of both your ancestors
one of learning
of educating
of acculturation instead of assimilation
of love and acceptance
one of not having to explain where you come from but how you came this far
of equal pay
of true justice
and most importantly true equity among men, women, children, non-binary, blacks, whites, latinx, asians
everyone in between
for the lgbt community
for me completely
it sounds unrealistic but when you
truly combine
and
truly listen
then change comes
and
actions glisten
through children of the future who look just like me
and just maybe this dream could become reality
“Growing up I had always struggled trying to combine both my family’s into one culture. There was always conflict and clashing of the two. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized it does not need to be one or the other, but instead I can create a type of new culture that embodies all the good aspects of both. I became proud of who I am and how I look and my both my cultures. It is important to teach people of different backgrounds that it is okay to embrace all parts of who they are.”
Jade Joiner
Sociology