I used to wonder why I had to encounter
difficult situations growing up. I tried to always see the bright light no
matter how dark my circumstances were and I had a feeling that I was supposed
to do something important one day. Growing up, I went through a lot, and know now
that I’m involved in my community, I see how my own experiences are useful
tools to relate to the kids I’m reaching out to. I know how powerful of an
influence people made on me when I was younger when they simply said “I’ve been
there.” Now I’m that person, and it feels wonderful!
I found out about The American Friends
Service Committee through my old poetry coach. She sends emails about youth
opportunities all the time so I was interested to see what this one was about.
When I was reading the credentials I got excited because it was like the email
was describing me! As an artist, poet, low key activist, and with a passion for
youth, this was clearly the place for me. I came in to this organization
expecting to be an expert just because I’ve done a few things around the city,
but I had and still have a long way to go before I become an expert.
In these past few months with AFSC I’ve
been on a learning overload and embracing this feeling of enlightenment. The
first thing I learned was that this organization is not about non-violence, but
nonviolence. The hyphen is what separates a person that choses to take
non-violent paths from time to time between the person that lives a nonviolent
lifestyle. Nonviolence was a tactic passed down from Martin Luther King Jr.,
who happens to be part of the inspiration of the organization, and of whose
quotes are all around the office. I
would say that I’ve always been a fan of King, but until now, I didn’t know
much about him besides the few paragraphs in history books and random repeated
information on his birthday or during Black History Month. As the weeks
progressed, I started to realize that I don’t know much about anything really.
It also dawned on me that I haven’t been living up to my potential. The
internship’s activities and assignments required us to become more socially
aware, so I was learning more about the world around me and the injustices in
that world; injustices I was oblivious to.
If someone would’ve asked me last year
if I consider myself a cultural organizer, I’d probably say that I’m not sure
exactly what they mean. I thought I knew what culture meant. My idea of culture
was limited to race and music and food, but culture is everything around you.
Culture is the houses in Treme, it’s the choice to wear black Chuck Tailor
Converse, its language, and the way you eat dinner with your family. I learned
that being a cultural organizer requires you to be able to use an aspect of
culture to teach someone. The workshop was exhilarating. I had to step out of my
comfort zone because there was a lot of singing and holding hands and sharing,
but the way I saw it was, why not open up? What’s the worst that will happen? It
was a giant circle; full of positive spirits all working towards uplifting our
people.
I
also thought I had a very open mind. At least until the Undoing Racism workshop
with The People’s Institute. The first thing they asked us to do was connect
nine dots with four straight lines without lifting the pen from the page. It
hit me that although I’m ahead of some people, I am still stuck in a box that I
need to break out of in order to move forward. Since I grew up in a small
southern town, I already knew about racial tension, but once again, I was
reminded that I don’t know everything. I had no idea that I was taking part in
my own oppression by continuing to unconsciously submit to the white race.
Simple things like defending my white friends incase my black friends make them
feel uncomfortable when black people have to feel uncomfortable every day of
their lives, or being able to recognize white privilege where things I hadn’t
even thought about.
Our events reminded me that although I
have some experience with kids, I still have a lot more to learn and I have
room to grow. I’ve gotten experience with teaching kids through my socially
aware art presentations
Now that the internship is over, I
already find myself still involved. I’ve kept in contact with different
organizations we’ve worked with. The want to change the world has always been
inside of me and now that I see other people passionate about the same thing I
feel like taking advantage is a must. This internship was just the push I
needed to begin applying myself. As I’ve been becoming more socially aware,
I’ve been becoming more and more passionate about changing the injustices of my
community and the world. The educational system, as we all know, it screwed up
and although I understand that we’ve been trying to change it for years, it needs
to be changed. It needs adjustment from the books to the teachers to the barbed
wire around the fences. I didn’t even know that only schools in low income
areas have barbed wire. I assumed they were everywhere. The sad thing is that
they cage up who they want to cage up and liberate who they want to see
liberated. I want to liberate my people. It hurts to see kids running around
dirty, or reading with kids with low reading levels, or kids that are drowning
from their environment. I understand that the world won’t change overnight, and
I can’t do it alone, but through this internship I see that there are a lot of
other people with the same overall goal and together we can change the world
Peace By Piece.
Asia-Vinae Palmer
The digital story that I made about a community organizer that I admire:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnnnibbnrp2pm8v/Asia-Vinae%20Photo%20Story.wmv
My reflection on my digital story:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b9jm64kjzpey1uc/Asia-Vinae%20Video.MP4
My powerpoint overview of this internship:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1t3ywm0ax9adi20/Asia%20Portfolio%20PP.pptx
