Several weeks back on this blog I wrote with much enthusiasm about Ruqayyah, Ty, and Daniel coming to Ada. It's a 4 1/2 trip from Abilene, Texas to Ada, Oklahoma, but somehow they managed it with busy schedules, clients to see, things to read, papers to write, and their other obligations to manage. It was a packed weekend. We stayed up late, laughed, talked, and, of course, we had to show them the community and have them meet some of the people here in this community.
After a morning run for Ty, Daniel, and me, one of my wife's world famous breakfast casseroles, and a tour of the key spots of the city, we settled into an afternoon of thinking out loud. We all wanted to stay with the essential ideas of developing a conceptual model that engages structural and narrative theory, work of previous teams, and ideas related to racism in its various forms that emerge from institutions of power and privilege upon the lived experiences of people.
We were able later to engage the expertise of two professionals here in Ada, Aaron Long and Joshua Hinson, in putting together a poster that speaks to the ideas and concepts that we consider to be germane to the topic at hand. We expanded it a bit by adding a second group alongside Black farmers for the purposes of comparing and contrasting. We are of the opinion that it gives us something to think about, and something that should continue to stir us to action.
At the end of the day, institutions of power and privilege are still amongst us. Racism still is ever present. Decisions are made as to worth on the basis of skin color, and other de-personalizing things, and our world is the poorer for it.
Though I'm no longer at ACU, and no longer teaching in the MFT program there, I am pleased, very pleased, that these students opted to continue the work of Teams I, II, and III.
Here is what this group of MFT students at ACU produced.
