When I first started teaching in Baltimore City, I attended a variety of rich diversity sessions about our role in bridging racial and socioeconomic barriers many of our students face. Teaching in a 76% Black and 14% Hispanic school district and in a city where over 21% of the city is below the poverty line, these sessions were very important. But one statement from a principal stood out to me above all else:
He went on to explain that as a principal, he’d heard kids raving about Stranger Things in the hallways, just as I had done as a kid. Now, as I round out my second year of teaching, I hold those words close to my chest because they’ve helped me connect to my students and not see them with preconceived notions or expectations.
Kids are human beings, just like anyone else, and have surprised me with their knowledge especially about anime. I used to think I was weird for watching anime growing up, but my kids know more about anime than me. I consult them when I think about what’s hot and what’s not in anime these days. I roll my eyes every time I hear kids raving about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure because I think the show is just, well, alright. But these shared moments of humanity have been bright points of connection in my relationships with my students.
At face value, my students and I have little in common. But we’re all just human beings at the end of the day. And what we’ve lost touch with, in this day and age, is everyone is a human being too, doing their best to get by at the end of the day. The more time I spend on Twitter or social media, the easier it is to see a person as solely the embodiment of their beliefs, whether that’s an alignment to their sports teams, politics, faith, or more.
Growing up, I’ve always struggled with labels. What labels am I? What comes first, what comes last? Throughout my life, my race and culture have had varying levels of priority there. My occupation as a teacher has skyrocketed up the priority list, as has my political identity as a liberal. My faith comes very high up too, which I hold very close to my heart internally but speak less about in public. And I’m a runner too — I felt like a chameleon constantly changing colors based on what crowd I was in.
I learned all these labels come secondary when viewing other people, to the fact that everyone is a human being at the end of the day.
People can believe things that are way out there. They can have come from a different world or culture. They can have a bad reputation. But nothing at the end of the day should transcend a person’s humanity. I’m not saying there aren’t unique challenges to teaching in Baltimore City either, because there most certainly are. And I’m not saying there aren’t unique struggles I go through as a first-generation Asian-American. However, once we set aside all the labels at the end of the day, we’re all human.
This isn’t a piece that’s going to preach “focus on what unites us instead of what divides us,” but we all find ourselves surprised at what we have in common with others. When I was at the awkward age of 14, the topic of having a hard time talking to girls came up among a circle of friends. An older member of the group asked why it was so difficult — women are just human beings at the end of the day, just like the rest of us.
He had a very good point for a variety of reasons, but the biggest is that most of us just want to be treated like human beings. It makes me a bit uncomfortable when people fawn over me and put me on a pedestal, as it does make many people. There were times people treated me like a subhuman species who didn’t exist — those are moments where I realized I took being treated like a normal person for granted.
I also don’t like people feeling like they have to walk on eggshells. I remember after the Atlanta spa shootings when some people felt like they had to dance around my emotions since I’m Asian and the shootings were terrible. Well, the world keeps spinning and turning, and I would much rather people still treat me like a regular person and not a child.
The moment we stop seeing a group of people as human beings, the moment we project onto them their beliefs, ideas, of some other projection of who we expect them to be, is a very dangerous moment. I have been thoroughly wrong before on judging people based on what I heard about them and their reputations. I used to hate the whole idea of Christianity and anyone who was deeply religious until I realized I was wrong to paint every Christian with a broad brush.
All of us being human does not mean we don’t need to tackle wide-ranging societal problems and seek justice. But I always remember a quote from an actor in The Wire about how he wanted to play his character, who struggled back and forth with addiction and attempts at recovery:
So let’s put aside the labels for a second, which is much easier said than done in this day and age. Everyone is just a human being at the end of the day, doing what they can to get by. We have much more in common with people we think we have nothing in common with when we look hard enough.
—
This post was previously published on The Apeiron Blog.
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
Compliments Men Want to Hear More Often | Relationships Aren’t Easy, But They’re Worth It | The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex | ..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything |
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock