Year 10: Week 10 – YMOC

This past weekend my school hosted its second annual Young Men of Color Symposium.

This event was inspired by a similar symposium started by Dwight Vidale at the Riverdale Country School in New York City. The idea was to create a space for young men of color in independent schools. This time served as an affinity space, a time for personal growth, and a place for community building.

This year like last year, I served as a facilitator. I’ll be totally honest. This year and last year it was a challenge…in a great way.  It has taken me 14 years to get to a place where almost all of the time I can handle whatever groups of students that is put in front of me. And it’s not like I couldn’t handle this group of students, but there were time that I wasn’t sure what to do.  My co-facilitators more than a couple times swooped in when I wasn’t sure what to do and did a great job.

I’m learning that facilitating isn’t the same as teaching. Also, I learning that groups of boys don’t work the same way together as a group of students who are made up of different genders. Throw in the fact that these are all students of color and you have a very unique situation that takes care and finesse to handle.

It was clear that some of the behavior that in a classroom context would be characterized as disruptive was an expression of learning through a level of discomfort. For example, we did an activity when people had to complete the phrase, “one thing I like about being a person of color is…” One student said his hair and immediately other students giggled, and some started feeling their hair nervously. The rowdiness in the other students responses was significant. My initial instinct was the shut it down these seemingly silly responses but taking cues from the other facilitators, I let it go.

Part of the dynamic in the room that I need to put out there is that I was an Asian-American adult in a room full of mostly black and African-American identified boys. The work in this room was racial and my identity is part of what was in that room, and I needed to be conscientious about what my presence meant in this space.

Now, I don’t really know what my presence means right now, but that’s okay. This is a space for young men of color, Asian-identified included. This year even though Asians were still a minority in a group of minorities, more Asian students came this year.

I have a lot of questions and wonders about this experience, but I’m glad that I got to part of this experience and contribute to this experience for these young men. Part of why I love teaching is that it puts me in different and uncomfortable places. This is how I learn and grow, and I’m grateful that I got to do this in service of these incredible young men of color.