Blog Post # 2

I found the past week of our classes to be particularly interesting due to various reasons, the most prominent being that our conversations took a more intimate form, which fostered both understanding as well as a keen awareness of the variety of opinions that developed in the process. Beginning with the class on social identities, I found that I myself, did not know which aspect of my identity was most important to me until I assigned a number to it during the activity. I have never been in a situation where I have had to discuss or even think about my social identity until now, so that class was an unusual but oddly satisfying experience. Though we were not able to touch upon Tan's 'The Arrival' during class, I found myself going over it a couple times, and nodding along in my head as I completely associated with the disorientation that overwhelms a newcomer when he/she arrives to another country or rather any place which is very unlike their home.  

I am extremely thankful for these classes because I feel that these conversations, however awkward or uncomfortable, are important to have. Coming from a country which is devoid of racism but big on stark religious and/or communal differences, discussions on racism are new to me, having only discussed them in an academic context during high school history or thinking about them as a result of watching a news report or hearing about an incident. 

Although I was aware of the incident regarding the posters, I was more or less detached from the whole issue because I had not been part of an active conversation regarding it. Now that I have done so, I realize the proximity of these issues in the environment around me. Rather than them being some vague ideas in theory, for me, these issues have finally taken form as I realize that they are real and they are happening around me. 

I like how everything we have been talking about recently, be it social and personal identities, the legality of graffiti, racism or even the presidential debate are all inter-related with each other in either really subtle or very obvious ways. Their permeability keeps the conversations rolling, and I cannot wait enough for more of them to follow!