I spent years studying the media. We studied how the media works, when the media was birthed, how it was birthed and how it has evolved. We studied factors that influence the media.
My adviser on campus, Dr. Donald Boggs, also spent a great amount of time travelling the world. This is one of his productions: A Ripple of Hope. I was even fortunate enough to meet the woman who cemented those words in his head and heart... be the little pebble that causes endless ripples long after you have disappeared under the water. |
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Given that my adviser had been an avid world travel, he allowed me to craft out my college experience with as much international exposure as I wanted (and still graduate on time). He was so dedicated to making sure I had the experience I needed that some of my classes, that were only available biennially and that he taught, he offered to teach me in private in his office when I returned. That allowed me to travel abroad (really, go back to Kenya and enjoy the familiar tastes and sounds of East Africa for a solid seven months) but also, explore my media studies from an African (and also Commonwealth) lens. There, he gave me access to GOLD. I believe a lot of what we are struggling with, on a personal, financial, emotional level, someone or a group of people somewhere in the world already has an applicable solution for. However, we are so busy exercising various versions of selfishness, being territorial, judgemental, unwilling and unfair to release ourselves from bondage. Being abroad for those months allowed me a whole other collection of perspectives, not just from my professors and how education is fashioned abroad, but from the students and the various discussions and cultural experiences I would have missed had I remained in America.
So, I am writing this now because it's necessary. I am writing this because we need more voices that have different perspectives and we need more voices that impact smaller circles across this nation.
I realize I live in a nation that I appreciate and that I call one of my many homes.
Here though, as much as an education and then a college degree determine various factors in life... we forget what all that education is for. It's not just a process. It's a process with purpose.
Here, history is based on opinions and not researched facts here, in this America I love and call one of my many homes.
Science is ignored and based on political views and not researched mainly because a lot of times, what I bump into is a lack of know how on where to go for information. As everyone is out studying various fields and going through various forms of education, it is important to birth lifelong learners.
For all the math I studied and all the science I took in and even classes like art (especially between Kenya and Botswana and my final science courses in my American high school) there was not just here is X, Y and Z... we also spent a lot of time proving and investigating what we were learning.
Here is an example from my Science and Agriculture classes in primary school (elementary school in Kenya).
Transpiration: (of a plant or leaf) transpiration can be described as the exhalation of water vapor through the stomata.
"plants lose more than 90 percent of their water through transpiration" (definition was gathered from Oxford Languages)
We not only wrote the word down, we were taught where the term stemmed from. What two or three languages married each other to birth the word.
We then spent a lesson or three, once the chapter was over, proving that what he had learnt actually takes place. In the case of transpiration, we used plastic bags. We tied a plastic bag over a few leaves on a tree or potted plant for a few days and when we returned a few days later, there would be liquid in the bag that had touches of green and brown to it. We hadn't had liquid in the bag before. The liquid was now there. We wrote what we observed and proceeded to the next subject matter and even took time to ask our teachers various questions in relation to transpiration.
Education isn't just about stating facts. The more we research, the more we learn about facts. This is why Pluto was downgraded into a dwarf planet in my lifetime and this is also why we (as a human race) discovered that plants could also use artificial light to produce food (photosynthesis). I remember the agriculture class I was in (it was 2002) when our teacher made us aware of what researchers had now discovered.
So, I am writing this now because it's necessary. I am writing this because we need more voices that have different perspectives and we need more voices that impact smaller circles across this nation.
I realize I live in a nation that I appreciate and that I call one of my many homes.
Here though, as much as an education and then a college degree determine various factors in life... we forget what all that education is for. It's not just a process. It's a process with purpose.
Here, history is based on opinions and not researched facts here, in this America I love and call one of my many homes.
Science is ignored and based on political views and not researched mainly because a lot of times, what I bump into is a lack of know how on where to go for information. As everyone is out studying various fields and going through various forms of education, it is important to birth lifelong learners.
For all the math I studied and all the science I took in and even classes like art (especially between Kenya and Botswana and my final science courses in my American high school) there was not just here is X, Y and Z... we also spent a lot of time proving and investigating what we were learning.
Here is an example from my Science and Agriculture classes in primary school (elementary school in Kenya).
Transpiration: (of a plant or leaf) transpiration can be described as the exhalation of water vapor through the stomata.
"plants lose more than 90 percent of their water through transpiration" (definition was gathered from Oxford Languages)
We not only wrote the word down, we were taught where the term stemmed from. What two or three languages married each other to birth the word.
We then spent a lesson or three, once the chapter was over, proving that what he had learnt actually takes place. In the case of transpiration, we used plastic bags. We tied a plastic bag over a few leaves on a tree or potted plant for a few days and when we returned a few days later, there would be liquid in the bag that had touches of green and brown to it. We hadn't had liquid in the bag before. The liquid was now there. We wrote what we observed and proceeded to the next subject matter and even took time to ask our teachers various questions in relation to transpiration.
Education isn't just about stating facts. The more we research, the more we learn about facts. This is why Pluto was downgraded into a dwarf planet in my lifetime and this is also why we (as a human race) discovered that plants could also use artificial light to produce food (photosynthesis). I remember the agriculture class I was in (it was 2002) when our teacher made us aware of what researchers had now discovered.
Education should empower us to think critically, learn how to research facts and weigh truth. The moment education becomes about parotting (especially unfounded information), we are then living on dangerous breeding ground.
I live in a country where the media is not understood, the way I had to take years and years of classes to understand how it works and why it matters. The media, also through it's own doing, has turned into a source of entertainment and is no longer founded on passing of unbiased information.
The media ethics courses I had to take, are disregarded because networks are no longer unbiased and thus exist under the oppression of political agendas and for ratings that bring in financial backing.
This is dangerous. I could list a zillion and one reasons why this is dangerous or I could simply begin to share pieces I think will help those who frequent our platform, have another outlook on matters.
I live in a country where the media is not understood, the way I had to take years and years of classes to understand how it works and why it matters. The media, also through it's own doing, has turned into a source of entertainment and is no longer founded on passing of unbiased information.
The media ethics courses I had to take, are disregarded because networks are no longer unbiased and thus exist under the oppression of political agendas and for ratings that bring in financial backing.
This is dangerous. I could list a zillion and one reasons why this is dangerous or I could simply begin to share pieces I think will help those who frequent our platform, have another outlook on matters.
I did not realize what role our presence in the community played until I was invited to a dinner where we discussed immigration. I was invited to help decipher what was real from what was not. I was an immigrant. I had become a citizen. They had known me for a long time and valued my presence in their lives. They felt with me, they could share their truth about what they believed when it came to immigration and why the path to citizenship was sacred. However, there were so very, many views being shared across various media platforms and a lot of them were opinion based. A lot of the channels brought in experts and naysayers to shout at each other and had stopped informing because ratings, ratings, ratings. So we spoke about DACA. We spoke about the green card which should no longer be termed as a lottery. We spoke about my life back home. We spoke about international students. We spoke about the path to citizenship and how some were left out.
We are now social distancing.
We have a blog that thousands of you visit (THANK YOU).
So, here is a link from National Geographic that breaks down the 19th amendment based on historical accounts. It's a five minute read. I/ We, as a team, don't want to continue in the insanity we all seem to be practising. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We keep barking at each other. Let's do something else. Let's return to the drawing board, as a nation, as humanity, and begin to research what we believe.
We invite those that visit our website to join us in thinking critically. What we research and decide (as citizens of the world) will determine the tomorrows others get to face. That is an important role to play.
We also added a few of our dinners, a few of our latest looks so the team and our suppliers can continue to be paid and music that was written by a Ghanaian and Kenyan artists. I never thought music that spoke of our African struggles might ever be used to highlight struggles (even in part) that we would witness and face in The West. Here we are though.
Take care of yourselves and stay healthy,
You, who is reading, matters to us. x
The LHo Team
We are now social distancing.
We have a blog that thousands of you visit (THANK YOU).
So, here is a link from National Geographic that breaks down the 19th amendment based on historical accounts. It's a five minute read. I/ We, as a team, don't want to continue in the insanity we all seem to be practising. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We keep barking at each other. Let's do something else. Let's return to the drawing board, as a nation, as humanity, and begin to research what we believe.
We invite those that visit our website to join us in thinking critically. What we research and decide (as citizens of the world) will determine the tomorrows others get to face. That is an important role to play.
We also added a few of our dinners, a few of our latest looks so the team and our suppliers can continue to be paid and music that was written by a Ghanaian and Kenyan artists. I never thought music that spoke of our African struggles might ever be used to highlight struggles (even in part) that we would witness and face in The West. Here we are though.
Take care of yourselves and stay healthy,
You, who is reading, matters to us. x
The LHo Team
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Things to consider:
(Gathered from online PDF from www.PCC.edu, 08/ 26th/ 2020) Definition of an institutions: institutions are fairly stable social arrangements and practices through which collective actions are taken. Examples of institutions in the U.S. include the legal, educational, health care, social service, government, media and criminal justice systems. Institutional Oppression is the systematic mistreatment of people within a social identity group, supported and enforced by the society and its institutions, solely based on the person’s membership in the social identity group. Institutional Oppression occurs when established laws, customs, and practices systematically reflect and produce inequities based on one’s membership in targeted social identity groups. |
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If oppressive consequences accrue to institutional laws, customs, or practices, the institution is oppressive whether or not the individuals maintaining those practices have oppressive intentions. Institutional Oppression creates a system of invisible barriers limiting people based on their membership in unfavored social identity groups. The barriers are only invisible to those “seemingly” unaffected by it. The practice of institutionalized oppression is based on the belief in inherent superiority or inferiority. Institutionalized oppression is a matter of result regardless of intent.
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Does institutionalized oppression continue in various ways currently? Why or why not? How did you arrive at the conclusions you did? Did you use a fair assessment of evidence to arrive at your conclusions? Are there other ways you might be able to view the issue? From relearning the 19th amendment from historical accounts, let's begin to become forever learners that think critically and hopefully, even ethically.
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