Real Talk: Mapping our Identities Through Personal Narrative | Diana Moreno | TEDxUF
Summary
TLDRThe speaker recounts her journey from Ecuador to the U.S., highlighting the stark contrast between her expectations and the reality of racial and social identity in her new home. She emphasizes the transformative power of storytelling and dialogue in understanding and embracing diverse identities. As an educator, she fosters open conversations among college students about identity and social issues, using ground rules to encourage vulnerability and active listening. The goal is to cultivate global citizens who are aware of their interconnectedness and the collective nature of societal issues.
Takeaways
- 🏡 The speaker moved from Ecuador to the United States as a child, expecting a life like in 'Full House', but faced unexpected challenges due to her race and immigration status.
- 🌟 She was a bright child and a leader in Ecuador, but in the US, her new environment led to her being underestimated by teachers.
- 🌧 The speaker felt lost and stereotyped in her new home, comparing it to being dropped in the woods with a blindfold and no map.
- 🗣️ She learned to navigate her new identity by listening to stereotypes and media representations, which were limited and often problematic.
- 🌈 The power of storytelling and listening to others' stories became her compass, helping her understand her identities and find her place.
- 🎓 In college, she found community and empowerment through the feminist movement, which used 'Consciousness raising' to connect personal experiences to collective issues.
- 🤝 The speaker emphasizes the importance of dialogue and connection across differences, which can lead to solidarity and a broader understanding of social issues.
- 👩🏫 Now as an educator, she creates spaces for college students to explore their identities and social issues through facilitated conversations.
- 📋 She uses ground rules like 'Step Up, Step Back' and 'Call In, Don't Call Out' to foster an environment of respect, vulnerability, and learning.
- 🌍 The ultimate goal is to prepare students to be global citizens who understand the interconnectedness of liberation and the importance of dialogue across differences.
Q & A
What was the speaker's initial perception of moving to the United States?
-The speaker initially perceived moving to the United States as an exciting opportunity, associating it with the glamorous life depicted in TV shows like 'Full House' and living in beautiful Victorian homes.
How did the speaker's experiences in the United States differ from her expectations?
-The speaker's experiences in the United States were marked by challenges related to her skin color, accent, and immigration status, which led to her being underestimated by her new teachers, contrary to her initial expectations of a bright and trouble-free life.
What did the speaker feel upon realizing the stereotypes and limited representation of her identity in the media?
-The speaker felt a sense of being lost and not understood, as the stereotypes and limited representation in the media did not accurately reflect her experiences or identity.
How did the speaker navigate her new social identities in the United States?
-The speaker navigated her new social identities by listening to her surroundings, learning which identities were punishable or worth hiding, and through self-reflection and conversations.
What role did storytelling play in the speaker's journey of self-discovery?
-Storytelling played a crucial role in the speaker's journey of self-discovery by allowing her to connect with others, validate her experiences, and understand that her problems were collective rather than individual.
What is the concept of 'Consciousness raising' as mentioned in the script?
-Consciousness raising is an organizing strategy adopted from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, where speaking one's truth and listening to others' experiences helps make connections, validate experiences, and recognize collective issues.
Why did the speaker transition from activism with a megaphone to facilitating conversations in a classroom?
-The speaker transitioned to facilitate conversations in a classroom to help students understand their identities and social issues through dialogue, which she found to be a powerful tool for personal growth and social change.
What are the ground rules the speaker establishes for dialogue in her classroom?
-The ground rules include agreeing on expectations, flexibility, stepping up or stepping back based on one's identity and privilege, calling each other in instead of calling out, owning one's words and their impact, and actively listening.
Why is it important to 'call in' rather than 'call out' during conversations, according to the speaker?
-Calling in is important because it encourages dialogue and learning rather than shutting it down, allowing for an educational opportunity to understand and address problematic statements or behaviors.
How does the speaker define active listening in the context of her classroom discussions?
-Active listening, as defined by the speaker, involves genuinely seeking to understand another person's perspective, listening to understand rather than just preparing a response.
What is the ultimate goal of the dialogue and learning environment the speaker creates in her classroom?
-The ultimate goal is to prepare students to be successful global citizens who are conscious of each other's humanity, understand the power of their voice, and the importance of listening to others, recognizing that individual liberation is connected to collective liberation.
Outlines
🌟 Identity and Stereotypes
The speaker recounts their childhood move from Ecuador to the United States, expecting a life akin to 'Full House.' However, they faced challenges due to their skin color, accent, and immigrant status, which led to misconceptions about their intelligence. The new environment felt like being lost without a map, prompting the speaker to rely on stereotypes and media representations to navigate their identity. The speaker emphasizes the importance of storytelling as a tool for self-discovery and understanding, which they learned through their involvement in the feminist movement. They describe 'Consciousness raising,' a strategy adopted from the Civil Rights Movement, as a way to connect personal experiences to collective issues, fostering solidarity and a broader social and political awareness.
🗣️ Facilitating Dialogue and Ground Rules
The speaker, now a college educator, discusses strategies for facilitating dialogue among students about identity and social issues. They emphasize the importance of creating a safe space for open and honest conversation, which requires vulnerability, honesty, and courage. The speaker outlines 'ground rules' to foster this dialogue, including establishing group agreements, flexibility to adapt as conversations evolve, and the importance of active listening. They introduce the concept of 'Step Up, Step Back,' encouraging participants to either increase or decrease their participation based on their level of privilege or representation. The speaker also addresses how to handle disagreements or offensive comments through 'calling in' rather than 'calling out,' promoting educational opportunities and personal growth. They stress the need for participants to own their impact and to educate themselves on any harm they may have caused.
🌐 Preparing for Global Citizenship
The speaker argues for the importance of preparing students to be global citizens who are aware of and can work across differences. They refute the notion that such dialogues are merely coddling students, asserting that the goal is to empower a generation that understands the interconnectedness of liberation. The speaker believes in the necessity of confronting issues like racism, misogyny, and queerphobia, and the importance of recognizing one's own privilege. They aim to create an environment where students can learn from each other's experiences, fostering a sense of global community and the understanding that individual success is tied to collective well-being.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Identity
💡Privilege
💡Stereotypes
💡Storytelling
💡Feminist Movement
💡Consciousness Raising
💡Solidarity
💡Vulnerability
💡Active Listening
💡Discomfort
💡Global Citizenship
Highlights
The speaker reminisces about moving from Ecuador to the United States at age 11, expecting a life like 'Full House' but facing unexpected challenges.
The initial expectation of an upper middle class existence with no racial tensions was quickly dispelled upon moving to the US.
The speaker's teachers underestimated her intelligence due to her skin color, accent, and immigration status.
The realization that social identities can change dramatically in a new environment was a significant shock.
The metaphor of being dropped in the woods with a blindfold and no map illustrates the disorientation of the speaker's new life.
The importance of listening to one's surroundings and media representation in understanding one's identity is emphasized.
The speaker learned which of her identities were 'punishable' and which might be worth hiding.
Self-reflection and conversations led to the understanding of identities that afford privilege and safety.
The power of storytelling and listening to others' stories was discovered through involvement in the feminist movement.
Consciousness raising, an organizing strategy from the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, is introduced.
The realization that individual problems are often collective was a powerful moment in the feminist organizing meeting.
The speaker's work with college students involves facilitated conversations around identity and social issues.
The necessity for creating an environment that promotes dialogue and vulnerability among diverse groups is discussed.
Ground rules for dialogue are introduced, including the agreement on expectations and flexibility.
The 'Step Up, Step Back' rule encourages equitable participation in discussions based on privilege and representation.
The concept of 'calling in' rather than 'calling out' to maintain dialogue and educate is explained.
Owning up to the impact of one's words and actions, even if unintentionally harmful, is crucial for growth.
Active listening is emphasized as a key component of effective dialogue.
Discomfort in conversations is necessary for challenging preconceived notions and learning from different experiences.
The speaker's goal is to empower a generation conscious of each other's humanity through dialogue.
The importance of understanding that liberation is interconnected and not an individualistic pursuit is highlighted.
Transcripts
[Music]
when I was 11 years old my family
decided to move from Kito Ecuador's
bustling Capital City to a sleepy little
town in Central Florida I remember to
this day the dayi Papi came to pick me
up from school and very casually asked
me what I thought about moving to Los
estos unidos are you kidding me I
thought the place where DJ Tanner lives
in those gorgeous Victorian homes duh I
thought it would fit right in I mean I
was a pretty bright kid president of my
sixth grade class hula hoop Champion not
to brag or
anything um but you know I whenever we
moved to the states even though I
thought this bright kid right here would
have a life that looked like a episode
of Full House with the golden retriever
an upper middle class existence with no
racial tensions among friends or
neighbors what what I actually found out
is that there was something about the
color of my skin my accent and my
immigration status that led my new
teachers to believe that I wasn't very
bright who the hell was I in this new
world why didn't anybody bother to
explain how my social identities would
change so dramatically in my new home
kind of felt like being dropped off in
the middle of the woods with a blindfold
and no map so in order to find my way
and figure out where I was I had to
listen to my
surroundings of course that usually
showed up in the form of stereotypes or
the narrow representation of people who
looked like me in the media back in the
early 2000s that looked like
JLo Gypsy from Gilmore Girls I don't
know if she was even at next but it was
pretty limited and of course then
there's what I learned from my family
and my community
so pretty quickly I learned which of my
identities not back to that one which of
my identities were punishable right
which which of my identities were
perhaps even worth
hiding later on with lots of
self-reflection and through
conversations I also learned that I
embody lots of identities that I don't
even have to think about because they
afford me lots of privilege and a sense
of safety simply because they're
considered the
norm in this long journey back to myself
I found that the most reliable and
efficient Compass was really the power
of of Storytelling and and the power of
listening to the sto stories of others
and the way that I learned about the
power of story was actually through my
involvement in the feminist movement I
remember as a college student being
invited to a feminist organizing meeting
and I was ready to go I had my megaphone
I had my markers I was ready to make
some signs I was ready for an action but
instead I actually walked into a room
full of women who sat around around and
we talked about our lived experiences
and how they related to a particular
topic later I actually found out this
approach is called Consciousness raising
and it's a organizing strategy that the
feminist movement adopted from the Civil
Rights Movement of the
1960s the IDE the idea here is that by
speaking your truth and listening to the
truth of others you're actually making
connections and validating your own
experience while figuring out that those
ex those problems that you thought were
individual problems they're not
individual but Collective so it was very
powerful for me to realize in that room
full of women that I'm not the only one
who feels overlooked or silence and
male-dominated
spaces but in those spaces of dialogue
and connection I was also able to hear
from women whose experiences were
different from mine and who did not
share the same identities as I it
created a space for solidarity their
issues became my issues for the first
time I saw my existence in in the larger
social and political context and it made
me feel
grounded of course recently I traded my
megaphone in for the classroom now I
work with lots of college students
helping them figure themselves out
through this sort of facilitated
conversations around identity and social
issues usually we expect for kids to
have to do that on their own right by
bumping into circumstances experiences
or people that are either going to
reinforce or punish them depending on
what identities they hold so you have
queer children in latinx households who
learn pretty early on that masculinity
is at the top of the gender hierarchy
and to hide any inclination towards the
feminine or you have upper middle class
children who see themselves reflected in
their neighborhoods in their schools on
television and they might assume hey
nobody has to worry about paying the
bills on time or getting that second job
to pay for
tuition so these are snapshots of
reality that usually form a pretty
unreliable and incomplete map that
really don't allow us to know exactly
where we stand and where our peers
stand so we come together in a group
full of people from diverse backgrounds
to begin to unravel those multiple and
complicated layers of identity that make
us who we
are all right I'm not going to lie to
you this is a pretty powerful process
but it also requires a lot of
vulnerability a lot of honesty and a lot
of
Courage but let's get down to business
how do I get a bunch of 18 to 21 year
olds to sit around and share their
deepest and most personal stories in a
room full of their
peers I'll tell you
how free
pizza n I'm just kidding I'm just
kidding my students are back there
saying like she never brought pizza for
us what are you talking about no
actually the way we set up this magical
sounding plays is pretty straightforward
we got to create expectations that are
going to promote this type of dialogue
and and really encourage
vulnerability I'll call them ground
rules and there's only a couple
conditions to make them work first they
got to be agreed upon by the group we
have to come to a collective decision on
what what they will
be secondly they got to be flexible so
we can add to them take away or edit
them as the conversation develops and as
we see fit but usually in my experience
they end up looking a little something
like
this first we we got to agree on
expectations because when we come into a
room with a group that has very
different experiences from our own but
we know that we're there for the same
reason we know that we're there to delve
deep into identity and talk about social
issues that matter to us well then it's
much easier for us to develop trust it's
much easier for us to give openness and
to receive that openness and to address
any issues that might
arise of course we also want to ask our
participants to be aware of how they
show up how do they take up space in the
room right and we use this little rule
called Step Up step back so for example
if you're someone like me who does not
mind raising their hands and always
participating and you're just ready to
go you're an extrovert or if you have
identities that are privileged or belong
to a dominant group what we ask you to
challenge yourself step back maybe take
some moments to listen conversely if
you're more in the introverted side of
things if you're a little shy or if you
hold identities that have been
historically under represented well we
ask you to step up challenge yourself to
really have your voice heard that way
we're modeling an equitable environment
in which all voices can be
honored of course in that room full of
people that are different somebody's
bound to say something you disagree with
right somebody's bound to maybe say
something that is even considered
problematic or offensive so how do we
keep each other accountable well we ask
for folks to call each other in in
instead of calling each other out now
why is that I know that calling out is
sort of this natural response to hearing
something problematic but it really
shuts down dialogue alog together and it
really is not it fails to give us that
educational opportunity that we're
looking for right so what's the
difference how do we call someone in
instead of calling them out well for
example if someone says something that I
hear pretty commonly hey I don't see
color right I can respond by saying you
know color blindness is actually a form
of racism that perpetuates white
supremacy I could I could do that or I
could say something a little bit like so
I'm wondering where you learn that from
could you speak a little bit more about
you know where that comes from because
as a person of color actually my race
and ethnicity are a pretty important
part of my identity and they're a
positive part of my identity So when you
say something like you don't see color
it kind of makes me feel like maybe you
don't see my experiences you see the
difference
there of course um if you do say
something that is harmful or hurtful to
someone we got to make sure that we own
up to it so we have to own not just the
intention of our words but also the
impact that they might have on someone
how does that happen well if we
acknowledge that the words or actions
that we might have done have been
hurtful that's the first step
acknowledging accepting and of course
educating ourselves on what it is that
we might have done wrong now we don't
want to put the educate the labor of
educating you back on the person that
you might have hurt right so we want to
make sure that we're responsible for
educating ourselves and then of course
doing better next time that's the most
important part but none of these rules
are really going to work if we don't use
that Golden Rule of conversation and
dialogue which is to actively
listen what does it look like to listen
actively instead of just kind of hearing
what someone has to say well the easiest
way to describe it is really to try to
genuinely seek to understand someone
else's perspective listening to
understand not just to respond to what a
person's saying pretty simple right well
actually it takes a lot of practice but
it really can change the nature of the
dialogue and really deepen it last but
not least and this one might sound a
little bit weird to
you we have to not just accept but
welcome discomfort in our conversations
now I can already hear my mommy I Miha
what are you going to talk about what
who are you going to make uncomfortable
this time right
cuz we've been conditioned to not really
talk about controversial topics to maybe
prioritize people's Comforts over
meaning in a
conversation but if we're going to
challenge preconceived notions if we are
going to actually learn from people
whose lived experiences are vastly
different from our own we got to give
ourselves room to be a little
uncomfortable because it's uncomfortable
to acknowledge and accept that our
knowledge is partial we don't know
everything and we have to unlearn some
of the things that we've learned in
order to learn what what was
right so this type of approach really
creates the dialogue where connections
can happen where people can learn about
themselves and each other in a space
that is
brave now these are by no means a
comprehensive list of rules right but
maybe they can get you started and
creating the types of environments in
which dialogue across difference can
actually take
place but so what I mean isn't this just
another way to call botle or snowflake
little Millennials into this bubble that
doesn't even mirror real life I mean why
are we teaching them to sit around and
talk about their
feelings well I'll tell you why it's my
job to make sure that my students are
successful citizens of the world right
and that means preparing them for this
world this diverse and Ever Changing
Global
community in my field we call this
learning to work across difference and
usually followed by all this fun
buzzword like creating young adults that
are ready for the global economy or
creating Global Citizens and yes of
course I want to make sure that these
conversations are going to allow my
students to be able to lead people from
diverse backgrounds I know that being
culturally competent is going to make
them great doctors lawyers Educators
legislators let's hope
right but I'm going to be real with
y'all I don't do this to make students
more competitive in today's global
economy or even to make our University
more globally renowned don't tell them I
said
that I'm in the business of creating
this type of learning environments
because I think we're in pretty dire
need of a generation who is conscious of
each other's
Humanity when we facilitate dialogue
across identities that focus on social
issues we're taking the blindfold off to
see ourselves and each other and to know
know that we are connected and you know
what it's not easy to share experiences
and to confront issues like racism
misogyny or
queerphobia it's not easy to confront
our own
privilege but we're not coddling we're
empowering a new generation of students
who will understand the power of their
voice and of listening to the voices of
others so that they may understand that
our Liberation is intrinsically
connected to the liberation of
others
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