Precious Knowledge Reflections

       "It's not all about the individual and how much they try. There's something in place that's stopping them from achieving their goals." I agree with this quote, and disagree with the people who say otherwise. In all single stories, there is a truth. But it is not complete. It is definitely about hard work to get what you want -- but even this, what you want, which could be less than you deserve -- is enforced by the societal systems, institutional and environmental, that govern our daily lives. Evaluating systems of oppression, in racism, classism, sexism, and from an intersectional perspective helps shift our focus to the real problem: the roots. The roots shape the individual, and their identity.
       "Studying race is contrary to American ideals." I disagree with this quote because America's founding, all presidents will agree with, was based upon the idea of the American dream, that anyone should be able to achieve anything if they work. But because I agree with the above quote that there is something in place that stops individuals from achieving their goals, systems of racial oppression and injustice, bias that we often are not conscious of in critical aspects of who gets what and how today (like in the justice system), I say that the American dream is incomplete without looking at race. America has always been a place of diversity, a place of refugees, immigrants, welcoming all -- persecuted, oppressed, sick, poor; of all races. And recognizing the impacts of these in the struggle to live the American dream, to be Americans, is critical. The freedom to learn your identity is also important in finding yourself in the world, also synonymous with an American ideal.
       "When you grow up in a poor area, you don't have the same chances as everybody else." This quote is powerful because of its truth that people ignore, or fail to see because of circumstances. Everyone deserves the same chance, but not everyone comes into the world with it. This is why education should do the job of giving people that equal chance, through mentoring and empowerment of youth. People who are poor have to work to support their families, often do not have help at home to get them through their studies, or have resources necessary for achievement. I have always had a computer at home, and parents who have time to help me, but some of my friends do not, and this is not fair. This is classism, and it goes hand in hand with racism -- youth of color who are poor are especially burdened by societal stereotypes that go with their race, hindering success.
       "We are being told we’re not part of America and not part of this culture." This quote makes me wonder what America really is, if these Latino students are being told they are not part of America. Is American culture white culture? I am frustrated with those people who do not embrace Mexican culture, Nigerian culture, Chinese culture, for example, as American culture. Again, it is roots that empower people to achieve. America is all this, and it is this mix that people should embrace.
       Mexican-American students feel passionate about their high school's Ethnic Studies program and its preservation. It gives them a sense of empowerment and family, while giving them meaning in education that they were not necessarily receiving before and helping the students to achieve. When Arizona politicians look to eliminate the program on the basis of color-blindness, apathy, and lack of perspective, they respond with fire. The students go to prepare testimonies to uphold their school's program when a bill proposing to reject it passes through committee, bring legislators into their classroom to hear what the Ethnic Studies program is like, engage and orchestrate symbolic awareness events, and advocate for change in ideas among legislators through protest and marches. Their solidarity to uphold freedom to learn information that will help their lives is beautiful.
       I think the documentary is more about the Ethnic Studies program itself, that is, an effort to decolonize minds, to empower youth. This rises greater out of a movement towards censoring curriculum and colonizing minds. It shows the hypocrisy of the efforts of legislators to pass a bill that would censor curriculum. A female state legislator said that the goal was to empower youth through education. The Ethnic Studies program was doing it, and education norms were not. The decolonization was powerful in the protest, and it showed an effort to keep Chicano culture alive.
       The César Chávez quote is all about empowerment and pertains directly to the decolonization efforts of Mexican-American adults and students in the movie. The knowledge that they learn in their Ethnic Studies class is precious because it shows them that they do not have to be oppressed anymore. They can move past obstacles in solidarity and education. I love the quote, and think it is very powerful. When an idea takes root, it cannot leave. Change can reverse oppression. It makes me think about moving from innocence and apathy towards experience, as youth trying to make impact in the world.

Rabbit-Proof Fence Responses

3.       The idea of a home is central to an individual's identity.  A home often has your family, has memories and experiences of yours, and has love, safety, and comfort, all of which foster the preservation and development of your identity.  This identity gives you strength in yourself and a sense of belonging in the world.  When you are deprived of your home and all that comes with it, you lose a sense of dignity.  This is the story of what happened to the main characters Molly, Gracie, and Daisy in the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence.  Because they were forced away from Jigalong, their home and place of Aborigine culture, to assimilate into white, Australian-British society as half-castes in the Moore River Settlement, they almost immediately attempted to escape.  Molly led the charge to go home, with dogged determination and perseverance to continue that was motivated by her quiet dignity.  She refused to let Mr. Neville and his people take away the sense of self that she, her sister Daisy, and her cousin Gracie all had.  Throughout the long journey, and even when Daisy cannot walk, the group continues onward, seeking redemption against the whites who interned them and pursuing the sanctuary of home.  Tracker Moodoo shows his pride in the will of these girls when he says his only line of the film: "She's pretty clever that girl; she wants to go home."  This statement shows to us the admirable quality of perseverance against adversity to maintain one's identity through home.

6.       Talking embodies spirit and livelihood.  Talking establishes power and influence; those with a voice are those who win in society.  It is in this way that silence is a theme in colonialism, and how it was used in the film to illustrate this idea.  Those with voice and power were the British, and those who had their voices taken away were the Aborigine.  Much of the speaking in the film is done by British colonial authority imposing their will on Aborigine people.  Silence, too, shows the lack of transparency about the evils of the colonial process.  Colonialism rapidly and quietly forces native peoples to comply with invaders.  A lack of dialogue could present the idea that colonialism, as it happens so abruptly, gives words, and in turn, the individuals who speak them, minimal staying power.  But at the end of the movie, when Molly and Daisy's mother, grandmother, and other Aborigines are chanting, a shift in silence to words indicates a power shift to the Aborigines in maintaining their identities.

7.       The namesake for the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence is very powerful.  The fence is both a symbol for the preservation of identity and the love and security of home, in addition to resilience of characters against British colonialism and their coercive assimilation of Aborigine peoples.  When Molly comes into contact with a person on their escape route, she asks them the direction of the Rabbit-Proof fence.  We can tell that this serves as a sort of destination for the girls when we can see their palpable happiness when they reach it.  They know that the fence runs all the way to their home, a place they associate with love and safety.  The fence also serves as a symbol for resistance against British colonialism and the preservation of Aborigine identity and ideals.  The rabbits can symbolize invading British colonists to an already established Aborigine world -- they are stopped by the resilience of the fence of Molly, Daisy, and Gracie.  Yet the fence could also, earlier in the film, symbolize Mr. A. O. Neville's resistance to Aborigine people and his ideas.  He fences in Aborigine culture in an attempt to "Britainize" it.  However, the prevailing image is certainly one of Aborigine toil to maintain their home against adversity from those attempting to strip them of it.  The fence in the movie conveys the conflicting tensions of colonialism -- resistance, assimilation, preservation, and protection.