On Saturday morning we attended a retreat for our YDEV
class. I was sleepy and honestly not looking forward to being in “class” all
day. But YDEV has this magical way of creating such a safe and empowering space
that really changes what it means to be in a “classroom”. The idea to journal
our journey was an amazing place to start. It was rewarding to hear everyone
being so open and honest about their journey and story. I think it helped create
that safe space to have the types of discussions we did.
The theme for the day was race. I thought that by now I knew
what race was but when asked to define it I couldn’t put it into words. I was
most shocked with Dr. Natalia Lopez’s question on whether race was real or not.
That began the discussion of the History of race and when the word came into existence.
I was most shocked when she stated that Mexicans were considered “white” when
needed for their labor. I found it interesting that a whole peoples race
changed when it was convenient. When speaking and learning about race I had never really LEARNED the history of how it came to be and I think that it is an important piece of information that is missing from the story.
I think the pre-retreat assignment was also helped me in a self-discovery
of who I am and who my people are. I liked being asked questions that really
make me think. At first it seemed easy but the more I thought about it the more
complicated the question became.
