Challenges and Triumph of Commencement
by Keita A. Whitten
Editor’s Note: Keita Whitten graduated from the University
of Southern Maine during Commencement exercises on Saturday,
May 11.
As I and my classmates at USM draw near graduation, I wanted to reflect on the journey to this point, the accomplishments and the many challenges.
I would like to share with you why USM’s Commencement Day, Saturday, May 11, will be especially significant for me personally. I was a little child who grew up on the streets of NYC during the melting-pot era of the 1970s. My community was both ethnically and economically diverse. I grew up with friends whose families were from Columbia, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti, Santa Domingo, Panama, the U.S., and were Black, White and Asian. I had friends who were Jewish, Catholic, Christian, Buddhist, atheist and many other denominations.
Although the melting pot trend emphasized new opportunities for many political minorities, I never conceived the idea that college was for me. College was for white kids, who were smart. College was for the rich people, who were also white. No, I knew I was not smart enough, or rich enough to attend college.
Now some of you may be puzzled by this perception, knowing the history of how many Black Americans who led the struggle of resistance understood the importance of equity in higher education. For without their courage and perseverance, I would not be here, receiving a degree in social work from a public university in New England. When I was growing up, the public educational system had not incorporated this significant history into its mainstream curriculum. As it turned out I never knew my true history, my true identity until I attended college.
Growing up in the North, I was removed from Black American history. As a result, I equated college with money and success and being white, something I did not identify with, but secretly wanted to be. I did not see successful people who looked like me (or what I equated with success at the time). This feeling was linked to something else, something I could not identify, yet I knew it when I saw it. Something I could not touch, yet I knew it when I felt it. Something so huge that it would take up a whole room, yet it seemed invisible to many. What was this thing that plagued my mind and tampered with my potential, sabotaging my future....? It would not be until years later, when I attended the Borough of Manhattan Community College, that I was able to answer this riddle. The answer? Racism. Until then, I lived in the dark with confusion and self doubt, feeling invisible and powerless.
I came to USM by way of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, and for the first time in my life Maine challenged my own perceptions of poverty and who are poor. Poverty is not synonymous with being Black. You don’t look up “welfare” in the dictionary and see a picture of a brown family. Poverty is bigger than me, bigger than being Black.
With this new insight, I knew I wanted to make a difference in the lives of poor people. That’s when I chose to pursue a degree in social work at USM. The social work faculty were very encouraging and supportive of my viewpoints and critical insights. They expected more of me, and many made me work to develop my writing skills, helping me to define my voice.
USM also provided me with the opportunity to get to know other oppressed and politically underserved populations. Opportunities such as Dialogues in Diversity, where I found the voice and courage along with other oppressed populations to share personal experiences and challenges dealing with racism, white privilege, homophobia, heterosexual privilege, able-ism, and learning disabilities.
Although I had grown up in a multi-cultural environment, I had never discussed issues of racism and oppression with my friends because I did not have the language to identify my reality. At USM, students of color carved out our own niche when we requested a space to develop what is known today as USM’s first Multi-Cultural Center, where I had the pleasure to be appointed the center’s first coordinator by Rebecca Sockbeson. Working with Rebecca Sockbeson showed many students of color the significance of claiming our voices and sharing our stories. As a result, many of us found pride in our histories and learned we were not alone dealing with the ramifications of racism and colonization. Prior to this experience, I never knew how other groups dealt with oppression and discrimination. As a person of color, I got to share the experiences of racism and colonization with other people of color, many of whom never knew the Black and American perspective. These combined experiences have helped me shape my place in the world as a mother, an advocate, a woman and a person of color.
As a result of these experiences, I will continue to maximize the principles of social work practice in order to integrate my personal and academic experiences. It’s my hope to be able to respectfully represent the interest of underserved populations in celebration of diversity at the macro and micro level. And for this I am truly grateful for my academic experiences at USM.
>more news releases
|
