The Awakening
The Awakening
Katrina Croswell | Higher Education More about Katrina
“Have your intellect be in service to your heart when you find yourself in a struggle with the emotional aspect of situations of racism, classism, sexism, and other ‘ism’s.” - Shakti Butler, Ph.D., Executive Director, World Trust Educational Services, Inc., and Narrator of the documentary, Cracking the Codes of Internalized Racial Oppression & Internalized Racial Supremacy. Question: How do we, as African Americans (Black people), reconcile with a society founded on our oppression? Even when we think we know what we should do or say when confronted by racism, we often find ourselves unable to act in the moment. I had been at my job in the office of Student Services at a “progressive” Theological School for several months when a potential student—an African American man—walked into my office needing to ask me some questions about the school, specifically around the “temperature” as it related to students of color.
Just when our conversation was heading into a deeper level towards that subject, an older (maybe mid-60s) European American (white) woman came into my office, completely disregarding not only the fact that I was in conversation with the brother, but also disregarding his very existence; she commenced in asking me questions about registration procedures. I remember being so taken aback by her audaciousness, privilege and entitlement. I could not/did not speak up fast enough to inform her of her lack of respect and what was clearly a boundary