"Little Things are Big" Commentary

http://www.facinghistorycampus.org/ctp/ctp.nsf/All+Docs/CTP+Little+Things?openDocument


I think it was interesting how Jesus Colon describes the mother he sees. His first identifying descriptor is that she was "White", a woman and then, a mother. I wonder if that's how she would identify herself. There's a book and video/online training series called "Courageous Conversations about Race" that I was reminded of. In one of the videos of a pd session, the facilitator (an African American man) talks about the fact that when surveyed most African Americans identified themselves as "Black or Af-Am" first, then went into other identifiers. Whereas, when whites were surveyed they didn't list their race as their first descriptor. When viewing that training, I wondered then if Latinos or Native Americans or even, Asians would be more like Blacks or Whites in their identity list. With Jesus Colon, he clearly identifies himself as a Black-Latino man (which he fears would be a problem at that late hour).

Although his description of the incident lasted maybe 5 minutes, I wondered how long the train ride was. How long did he really ponder whether or not to be of assistance? No matter what the time span, it was clear that the incident left an indelible mark on his psyche. Much like the experience Countee Cullen had in Baltimore as described in his poem, "Incident." The point I'm making here is that everyone has those life-altering events or moments in their lives (my colleague, Denise Gelb has a great icebreaker/team bldg activity related to that idea).

Colon's brief encounter did however leave me with questions....

1. Why didn't he just offer help to her from afar first rather than approaching her to help? If he felt uncomfortable asking her, why not ask or speak to kids?
2. Could he have just spoken to her or made some sort of gesture/smile initially as she boarded the train to better judge how she would respond to his help?
3. Did he have another opportunity to help someone of another race later in life?
4. If he could do it over again would he make the same decision?
5. Why does he run away (as if he is a criminal leaving the scene of a crime)? Is he running from his own guilt/shame at not helping?
6. If he'd offered to help and she said "no" or was afraid, would he have felt worse than he felt by not offering in the first place?