Day 1: Drive to Birmingham
Day 1: Drive to Birmingham, Friday 5/25/07
Today we had the distinct privilege of getting up bright and early to get on the bus to drive to Birmingham. On the way up, we discussed our readings, heard student presentations, and watched a few films.
The discussion about the first two readings was interesting, because they were articles we read for Social Stratification last semester. It was a nice refresher course on the theories behind stratification. I’m really excited to be able to apply these theories that I’ve learned about and see how it opens my eyes to the realities of inequality and injustice.
The student presentations were fun, just because I like learning about Civil Rights history. I gave one of the presentations, on the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by members of the KKK in 1953. Other students presented on things like the Children’s March and MLK’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” I had never heard of the Children’s March before, so this was enlightening information. In her presentation, Jillian mentioned how Malcolm X criticized MLK and Civil Rights activists for their use of children to achieve there goals. He said this just displayed cowardice on the part of the activists because they weren’t ready to get out there and do the work and feel the sting of oppression themselves. I think that he was way off the mark in this point. If children are not involved, the movement has no means to continue forward. These children are the ones that need to be educated so that they can be the leaders when they grow up. Additionally, young people tend to have more freedom and time to dedicate to causes like this and are generally willing to do a lot of the hard work.
The later discussion was on what it means to be a southerner and if we considered ourselves to be southerners. This is a hard discussion for me, just because I’m unsure of where I stand. I know that I come from a southern family and that, geographically, I come from a southern state, however I don’t always feel that I’ve grown up “southern.” I mean, I’ve certainly never considered myself a northerner, but I guess I’ve just never really considered myself anything…which is very uncharacteristic of a southerner. They are fiercely proud of their heritage, which certainly isn’t the case for me. I’m rather indifferent.
I don’t know that care to always be identified as southern. Sure, it’s great in a southern hospitality sense (and I feel that I’ve got that part down), but I look at this very colored history of this place and I’m not always so proud. Should I be proud to be from a region that is home to continued injustice and discrimination? I think this question going to be something I wrestle with a lot this trip.
After lunch we watched Fried Green Tomatoes and tonight we got to eat at the restaurant from the movie and the book. It was a lot of fun and was a great cultural experience. Food was served cafeteria style. You got to pick a meat, sides, bread, and a dessert. I laughed when I walked in and saw our choices, as the vast majority of choices were fried or cream based. Welcome to the south.
Today was a pretty relaxed day. I didn’t really feel very challenged by what I’ve seen but am more so functioning with the concerns about what the future days will bring. It was wonderful to spend the day getting to know the other people on the trip!