https://padlet.com/sierra_austin/gdng7duq9gb8l661 Made with charm en-us 2020-10-12 17:07:44 UTC 2020-11-23 16:19:42 UTC hello@padlet.com sierra_austin https://padlet.com/sierra_austin/gdng7duq9gb8l661/wish/822648704 Please jump right in to discuss your reactions to the text!]]> 2020-10-12 19:04:50 UTC https://padlet.com/sierra_austin/gdng7duq9gb8l661/wish/822648704 simon_buehrer https://padlet.com/sierra_austin/gdng7duq9gb8l661/wish/952706992 "The anthrax, like the reactivation of the human pathogens of hatred and tribalism this evolving century, had never died." 

I think conversations, connections, reflections, and learning best happen through stories. I didn't know this particular story about the resurrected anthrax in Siberia, but thought this was an excellent way to open the book and start the exploration of things that are often buried, below the surface, not discussed, forgotten, maybe thought to be dead or extinct. I'm wrestling with such things on a personal basis as I start to analyze and confront my own biases and assumptions, what I've been taught, what I've learned, what I believe. I've always struggled with difficult conversations but know that is a necessary part of becoming an anti-racist.]]> 2020-11-23 15:23:46 UTC https://padlet.com/sierra_austin/gdng7duq9gb8l661/wish/952706992 simon_buehrer https://padlet.com/sierra_austin/gdng7duq9gb8l661/wish/952835129 These quotes stood out to me:
"Caste is the infrastructure of our divisions." 
"A caste system is an artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups on the basis of ancestry and often immutable traits, traits that would be neutral in the abstract but are ascribed life-and-death meaning in a hierarchy favoring the dominant caste whose forebears designed it." 
"As a means of assigning value to entire swaths of humankind, caste guides each of us often beyond the reaches of our awareness." 

I've been thinking a lot about the social constructions that humans  use to define and frame their lives – from nationalism to language to religious beliefs to political parties to institutions like marriage. How do these things "guide each of us often beyond the reaches or our awareness"? Or another thing I've been pondering of late – what is something I've always believed or believed for so long as to be beyond questioning – and what if I found out in this very moment that long-held belief was a lie or was wrong? Would I still hold or cling to it? ]]> 2020-11-23 15:51:42 UTC https://padlet.com/sierra_austin/gdng7duq9gb8l661/wish/952835129