Sean Dean

Sean Dean

Tracie Bonjour

Dr. Ken Badley and Taryn Kloster (UG AmeriCorps Intern)

Sean Dean

Here is the map we’ve been using in class.

About a month ago, I was co-leading Sunday School with Margo Carroll. The lesson was about identity and how each of us are created uniquely in God’s image. Now, I can’t for the life of me remember – or find in my email threads – the Bible verse (I think it was Genesis), but I vividly remember Margo’s lesson. She brought in several works of art depicting male and female children of different cultural heritages and asked the group if each child was created in God’s image. Throughout the lesson, the children learned that each and every one of them, no matter how different we seem in appearance, are created with intention. Because God is just that good.

As a one-liner, the idea that we’re all created in God’s image seems like a simple message to accept. But it is a concept that I’m still learning to internalize: the fact that I am loved, and was given a unique story, heritage and image that was intentionally created and holds deep purpose.  And, in my life calling to advocate for a more equitable education system, how will I own and leverage it to change the system and inspire others?

Since I was pretty young, I’ve navigated a society that led me to perpetually question my heritage. I’m mixed-race (or a mutt, as my dad lovingly states). He descends from a French-speaking, French-Canadian sharecropping family in the tiniest rural town I’ve ever laid eyes on: Aurora, KS. Mom, born to a Cuban father and Colombian mother with indigenous roots, was born in Miami two months after her parents and siblings immigrated to the United States from Central America on my Abuelo’s Cuban tilemaking sponsorship. Both of my parents grew up learning English as their second language, both were among the first in their family to attain high school degrees, and both experienced very different shades of poverty.

It’s a story rich with history and complexity that never fit neatly into the census box or FAFSA form, especially in a society where I must choose to be “Caucasian,” “Caucasian, non-Hispanic,” or “Bi-racial.” In the rare moments as a young person when I felt comfortable opening up about my history with others, I was almost always met with a response to “prove it” or that I was “too much” or “too little” of one piece of my heritage or another. Those responses added insult to injury during teenage years which were already tumultuous enough.

God opened up my pursuit to “own” my story and leverage it to combat institutional racism through an unexpected blessing – the opportunity to be a community organizer.  One of the first advocacy skills I learned as a developing organizer (and a lesson we do regularly with parents and community members) is learning to tell our story and open up about our unique experiences around how we’ve benefitted or been underserved due to systemic injustices perpetuated in our public education system. Our story is what inspires and catalyzes grassroots power, and pressures decision-makers to respond to our demands. The development of “our story” requires a process of deep introspection to understand what our core motivations are that drive us to action.

God has awakened in me a passion for understanding my roots, in order to better serve those around me and embrace his love and intention in forming me. My first two years as an organizer have been a painful, healing, and liberating journey – to trace the unspoken experiences of my ancestors, develop confidence in embracing everything that I am and understand the implications of my White privilege in my interactions personally, professionally, and in the cross-cultural work that I do. I’m also learning to recognize the unique experience and perspective I have as a mixed-race Latinagringa.  Instead of living ashamed and confused (which is no way to live, by the way), I now thank God for the opportunity that provides for me to make a difference.

What I’ve been reading:

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Brown: The Last Discovery of America by Richard Rodriguez

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Plug for  great organizations that address mixed-race issues

MAVIN Foundation, a national organization that seeks to create resources that celebrate multiracial youth and families. MAVIN strives to be the most comprehensive resource to expand awareness and bring mixed heritage issues to the forefront of the mainstream dialogue. http://www.mavinfoundation.org

Cultures Connecting, a Seattle-based organization that provides consulting and professional development, and workshops to help organizations and individuals enter into conversations about race, culture, and social justice and learn new skills they can apply in the workplace and beyond. http://www.culturesconnecting.com/

Sean Dean

Reflection by Angela Greenshields

Sean Dean

The Story of Mary Magdalene read by Helen Wylie