

And I got to experience - and get stuck in while traveling back from Florence - the biggest snowfall Rome has seen in decades, some say in 55 years!
My host, upper school principal Ken Kunin, shared some of the books he's used as references for faculty training on cultural competency, including Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, in which I found this gem of a passage in a Patricia J. Williams essay on intentional color blindness, "The Emperor's New Clothes" (here's an excerpt):
"... I do think that to a very great extent we dream our worlds into being. For better or worse, our customs and laws, our culture and society are sustained by the myths we embrace, the stories we recirculate to explain what we behold. I believe that racism's hardy persistence and immense adaptability are sustained by a habit of human imagination, deflective rhetoric, and hidden license. I believe no less that an optimistic course might be charted if only we could imagine it.
What a world it would be if we could all wake up and see all of ourselves reflected in the world, not merely in a territorial sense but with a kind of nonexclusive entitlement that grants not so much possession as investment. A peculiarly anachronistic notion of investment, I suppose, at once both ancient and futuristic. An investment that envisions each of us in each other."
3 comments:
Great quote. And apparently a wonderful trip! Brava!
Glad it went so well and was so rewarding.
What an amazing quote! Thank you for sharing it. Though I follow your blog I haven't visited this site in awhile and I am glad to be reminded of all you have to offer. I wish that my vision were as clear as hers and yours.
Thanks.
I was thinking of you just yesterday and wanted to hop onto the blog and see what you're up to. Glad to see that you had a wonderful trip in Italy - what an opportunity! I hope you had a great time, glad to have you back here in Maine!
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