"Yes We Can," "Yes We Did," But No We Haven't: Marking a Moment by Remembering Reality

Authors

  • Rachel Alicia Griffin Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

Abstract

This narrative, written as a letter to those engaged in and those considering social justice as embodied activism, seeks to unite the author's yearnings for progress with reflections on lessons learned thus far on her own journey toward social consciousness. Although some may critique this style of writing as too informal or too immediate, the hope is that the use of the author's personal/academic voice (Ono, 1997) will create a space in which far more people are able to locate, hear, contemplate, challenge, and/or identify with her perspectives as an academic scholar whose work is always personal and political. This letter describes how she has come to understand voice as crucial in the struggle against oppression. The ways in which she has come to terms with privilege and marginalization at the intersections of identities is also explored. Lastly, she endeavors to create a critically self-reflective space in which she and others can be held accountable for the ways we reproduce and affirm systems of privilege while simultaneously addressing how we might become more progressive.

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How to Cite

Griffin, R. A. (2014). "Yes We Can," "Yes We Did," But No We Haven’t: Marking a Moment by Remembering Reality. Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping, 16(1), 6–14. Retrieved from https://reflectionsnarrativesofprofessionalhelping.org/index.php/Reflections/article/view/784

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General Submissions