I'm reading this fabulous book by Brené Brown called Braving the Wilderness. I'm only a chapter in, and I'm already finding so many fabulous ideas that resonate with me. She spend a lot of time talking about belonging. On the page I'm reading, she says that people are concerned about how fear and anger are the only thing binding people together these days; people are increasingly unable to be bound together by our common humanity. "They reported feeling more afraid to disagree or debate with friends, colleagues, and family because of the lack of civility and tolerance."
Common humanity is the phrase that jumps out to me. Brown goes on to say that common humanity can lead us to recognize "Yes, we are different in many ways, but under it all we're deeply connected." And I see this over, and over, and over again: in the town I live in, when I read online, the comments section (ugh), and even in high political offices. The lack of ability to see the humanity in another person makes me cry, internally, for the future of our country.
As a teacher, I personally feel like teaching has taught me to recognize the humanity in all my students. Even in my difficult or challenging students, I work to see them as a person. To me, this makes the teaching easier; can I reach them on a level where we can both connect? I have found that it is easier to connect with students when I look at each day with fresh eyes -- forgetting any conflict from yesterday -- and work to treat my students as a human and not simply as a body in my classroom or, worse yet, an annoyance.
Recently, some school teachers in Idaho made the troubling decision to dress as a wall (yes, that wall) for Halloween. There's more; feel free to read the article. (side note: yes, I linked Fox news, because if even they find this newsworthy, that's notable.). Some dressed as the wall in American costumes, and others dressed up in Mexican stereotypes with sombreros and ponchos. Ten percent of their students are Hispanic/Latinx, and I am saddened by the implications of their choice. Do they think immigrants harm our country? How can you teach students when you feel they should not be here and don't share in your humanity?
We can certainly have conversations about immigration. How much is a sustainable level for our country? What is the role of immigrants in our country? Do we have jobs that have a hard time finding citizens to work them? Can we find a way to import workers for part of the year, safely and legally, and then let them safely return? How do we make sure immigrants become working members of our society? Can we use those skills to also help those citizens in our society who live in poverty and struggle to fully be part of our society? I was reminded in another news story I heard that society is not homogeneous in our country; the reporter was in a park where preschoolers were playing while drug addicts shot up on a park bench. (Another place where we struggle to see the humanity in others, but that's for another post).
There are so many good, worthy questions to tackle in order to "fix" immigration. But if the answer for some people to every question is "they are not us, so they are not as worthy as us or as human as us, therefore they are not allowed in," then there is no place to meet in the middle. Denying the humanity in others leaves us no middle ground to search for concordance.
Today, I encourage you to look for the humanity in someone else. For me, it's trying to see through the fear to the man who lives on the corner down the street from me. He is angry, deep down. He puts up inflammatory political signs, and I don't think he sees the humanity in anyone who doesn't agree with him. How can I work to see the humanity in him? I find his corner so repulsive that I'm not there yet, but that's where I am working on being my own best self.