Reflection
When I first started looking at colleges, what really set Hamline apart from others was that I would have the opportunity to major in Social Justice. I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do, or how I would translate any of my varied and not very monetizable interests into a life career, but I did know one thing: I wanted to help people, especially other people of color and LGBT+ people, and getting the chance to major in Social Justice seemed like the best way to do it.
I knew I would have to pick another major in addition to Social Justice, however, both in terms of marketability and to get a broader perspective in my education, and I chose to do Legal Studies in order both to appease my interest in politics and the Caribbean half of my family (My brother and I sometimes joke that we can have whatever career we want as long as it sounds prestigious to our various cousins). While I was and still am interested in how the law plays a role in social issues, my coursework in Social Justice has made me consider alternative paths as well.
When I first got to Hamline, I had considered majoring in history, which has always been a major interest of mine and probably one of my greatest passions in life. However, as a woman of color, I was discouraged when, in one of my first classes (one that dealt with the Revolutionary War) I was discouraged and even yelled at for trying to remind people of the fact that America was built on a system of slavery that traumatized and disenfranchises black people to this day. I quickly decided that I wasn’t willing to put up with this for another three years, and so chose Legal Studies as my coupling major. However, I often struggled with the lack of emotion and rigidity present in legal classes-sure, the law as it is says this, but sometimes we also have to acknowledge the laws are wrong-and explaining basic principles of social issues to people entering careers in criminal justice. Yes, sometimes black people carry guns and move suddenly and might even, maybe, have a prior criminal conviction. None of these things are causes for execution by a police officer during a traffic stop.
However, the classes that I took for Social Justice were all ones that I looked forward to, had great discussions in, and genuinely enjoyed. It felt like we were a step above talking about the world as it was, and were instead focusing on how we got here, how things should change and how we might change things. It was so much less emotional labor to not have to go into a class discussion explaining basic things that anyone out of high school should know (Sometimes the Supreme Court makes poor decisions that cause harm to a lot of people) to having discussions with people who were all coming in to the conversation with a genuine wish to understand, listen, and improve things for other people. While I know I won’t often experience that in the real world, it is something I’ll miss about my Social Justice studies at Hamline. I even rediscovered my passion for history when I took a class about how we tell stories of colonial history, and am currently considering attending grad school to find a way to merge my passions for both history and social justice.
While I’ve certainly changed a lot since I first stepped onto the Hamline campus, and my priorities, interests and goals have changed with me, I can say for sure that my experiences as a Social Justice major have by and large been my fondest memories of Hamline. When I look back at my years in college, I’ll have a lot of incredible memories to think about, and many of those will be centered around the Social Justice program.