Immersion

Today begins our immersion experience. I've been plotting and planning for weeks, and yet I still feel ill-prepared for this challenge. Excited? Absolutely. But I really want to make this one count, and so I've had to do a lot of reflecting in order to determine what exactly that means.

When I look at our lifestyle, I think we're already doing pretty well in terms of international influence and knowing that the world is a much bigger and more diverse place than our comfortable little bubble. I'm hoping that this experience will force me to push some of my boundaries and help me to foster deeper connections and a greater understanding for what people of colour face in America.

I'm lucky in that I live in one of the most diverse areas of the country (if not the most diverse, according to the 2000 census. We'll see how the neighborhood fares in this year's census). And yet there are tons of little storefronts half a block away that I've never explored. That will change this month.

I'm approaching this challenge in a couple of different ways, all aimed at creating deeper connections. My plan for the time being is to focus on a different community of colour each week of April. We'll be going to visit new neighborhoods, relevant museums, restaurants, businesses, and grocery stores. We will be watching movies (I've updated my Netflix queue, if you're a member, become my friend!), listening to music, and reading books from around the world. We will be taking advantage of local resources to attend lectures, dance showcases, drum circles and other cultural events.

I'm planning to spend a lot of time at parks with the kids. We'll go to different neighborhoods and also be more present within our own neighborhood. A lot of our neighborhood is apartments / condos and we don't really know many of our neighbors. I'm hoping that will begin to change this month.

I'm working on some lists of resources for anyone who might want to join in our immersion experiment (movies, books, music, etc.) and I could probably be persuaded to send out some mix cd's if people are interested.

I'm also (finally) working on learning Spanish. Depending on how well I'm doing, one of my weeks may involve intensive Spanish immersion. We'll see.

One of the things I'm most excited about is attending the White Privilege Conference with my friend Meghan. She's a remarkable woman who's doing incredible work both personally and professionally to break down racial stereotypes and become a strong ally to people of colour. I expect to be pushed, and I expect to come out the other end of this experience a better person.