Here's What College Students Are Saying After the Election

I let class out 40 minutes early on Wednesday after the election and told my students they could stay if they wanted to talk about campus climate, about the election, about anything that was on their minds. About 1/3 of them stayed.

Here are just some of the things my students told me today in that conversation, or privately before or after, as close to their words as I can get with my less-than-stellar memory (with some minor changes to respect privacy--this is tough, because I feel I need to share this, but also want to hold sacred what they said):

"My family had a meeting. We've figured out we're not welcome here anymore. We're going back to Mexico as soon as the semester is over."

"We're all conservative where I come from. But then I see what the College Republicans are doing on campus, I hear some of the things Trump says. But if I say that I don't agree with everything the liberal students do, then I'm the bad one, the stupid one, no better than Trump. And yet when it comes to policies, I am more conservative. I'm caught in the middle. No one respects me. And now, I don't know what to believe anymore."

"My girlfriend was assaulted yesterday for wearing a hijab. Our plan is to get married and out of the country as soon as we can."

"When I found out they scattered Trump stickers inside the tipi on the mall that we put up for Native American heritage month, a part of me died. I felt like I couldn't breathe anymore."

"I don't know what it means to be a Christian anymore. I don't know if I can call myself that anymore. I don't know what to call myself."

"This election has cost me my family."

"I don't know how I will look at my dad when I have to go home. I have learned too much about myself and the world to see him in the same way now. And that scares me."

"All my life I haven't fit in. Finally, here, I've found my place, a group of people who really get me, and care about me as I am. But now I am terrified because some of my friends aren't safe. I want to stand with them, but I know that might mean I'm not safe either. I don't know if I'm strong enough to stand with them, and when I think about that, I feel ashamed."

"We have a president who said things publicly that my rapist whispered into my ear. I feel sick."

"I can't decide whether to work toward civil dialogue, or to run into the streets and scream and cry until someone hears me. I really don't know which would be the better choice."

"I want to understand the other side, but I don't even know how to approach them respectfully, No one has ever taught me how to listen."
"I'm too afraid of the other side to be able to talk to them. But I am not sure if I'm overreacting or if the things that have happened are really threatening. I can't even trust my own instincts or feelings anymore."

"I have never been less sure of what to say than in this moment. I have never been less sure of how to be an educator, or a parent, than in this moment." (that one was me).

We all wept. We stayed quiet and didn't try to comfort each other. We stayed quiet and strained our ears and hearts to really hear. I felt broken and honored and raw and powerful all at the same time.

And then, as we were packing up to walk out--not because we had finished our conversation, but because the next class had come--one of my students, who has spent most of her weekends at Standing Rock this semester, said quietly, "Our ancestors suffered much worse than this. They will give us the strength we need to go on."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mary Oliver's "Goldenrod"

In her poem "Goldenrod," Mary Oliver begins: "On roadsides, in fall fields, in rumpy bunches, saffron and orange and pale gold, in little towers, soft as mash, sneeze-bringers and seed-bearers, full of bees sand yellow beads and perfect flowerlets and orange butterflies." I love the phrase "rumpy bunches." That was the phrase that caused me to remember what goldenrod looked like. Hiking the prairie, the goldenrod are the yellow plants that seem to gather and bend together, old women, golden-headed instead of gray, whispering their secrets. They stink, and they are rugged and disheveled, but they are also beautiful in their own way. I loved the prairie from the moment I moved here, but I learned to love it more because of S, who was so in awe of living in the midst of so much open space when I first got her. She loved to walk with me, noticing plant and snake and bird, breathing in, in, in. Later, walking ...
Read more

Song for Autumn

"In the deep fall/don't you imagine the leaves think how/comfortable it will be to touch the earth instead of the/nothingness of air and the endless/freshets of wind?" Mary Oliver writes in "Song for Autumn." What does it mean to live a good life, to have a good death? A mentor of mine died a good death recently, loved deeply by so many who visited regularly until the very end. I never went to see him, even though S asked many times that we do so. I had heard from a mutual friend that he'd said, "Let them come if they need to say goodbye," and I didn't. I didn't because the last time I saw him, he had hugged me tightly and told me how glad he was to have worked with me, and I had said the same. We both knew, of course, that he was dying, but in that moment, surrounded by the noise and laughter at a community meal, we didn't have to say it. Before then, S and I had presented him with a painting of his favorite local hang out at his retir...
Read more

SOFA at Our Home!

  To: All-Employees RE: SOFA at our home! We’re THRILLED to be hosting SOFA, the weekly end of week party that travels from home to home, for the first time in many years! If you remember the last time I hosted, please don’t hold that against me (or my spouse, whom I didn't even know at the time)–that was a long time ago! Anyway, we wanted to give you some information about our home to prepare you for what we hope will be an amazing party! We’ve broken this invitation into sections for ease of navigating. Please read them all, even if you don’t think they pertain to you. What You Should Know About Our Vibe Before you enter our home, we’ll be asking you what Zone you’re in, and what your plans are to get back into the Green Zone if you report being in blue, yellow, or (God forbid) red.  Please provide your own fidget and coping cards so you can stay in the Green Zone, because no one at our home is going to share theirs. We will be checking in with you at least once an hour abou...
Read more