{"id":5269,"date":"2012-08-18T10:58:24","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T17:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/?p=5269"},"modified":"2012-08-18T16:06:26","modified_gmt":"2012-08-18T23:06:26","slug":"grace-ji-sun-kim-hispanic-white-privelege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/breyeschow\/2012\/08\/18\/grace-ji-sun-kim-hispanic-white-privelege\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace Ji-Sun Kim \u2013 \u201cThrough Hispanic Eyes\u201d – Theological Education and White Privilege"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

PhotoBy Jose Venegas \u2013 venegas on Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Puerto Rico is a beautiful island with lakes, rivers, mountains, rainforests and of course picturesque beaches. I received a warm welcome at the airport in San Juan: 92 degrees with 74% humidity. Despite the hot, humid weather conditions, I went with eagerness to explore the culture, history, and tradition of Puerto Rico and reflect upon theological education in light of Hispanic theology.<\/p>\n

This beautiful island was home to 70 seminary students for two weeks as they took courses through the \u201cHispanic Summer Program\u201d<\/a> (June 16-29, 2012). In addition, 10 faculty and adminstrators participated in \u201cThrough Hispanic Eyes,\u201d a four day \u2018mini program\u2019 for non-Hispanic faculty.<\/p>\n

I was one of them.<\/p>\n

We visited classes and spoke with the Hispanic faculty. The Hispanic faculty shared their own struggles and how this program helped them through their own studies. Our group leader was Dr. Luis Rivera-Rodriguez who is the James G.K. McClure Professor of Theological Education, Dean of the Faculty, Vice President for Academic Affairs at McCormick Theological Seminary. He was both informative and caring which helped us work through some of the various issues that Hispanic students and faculty face during their time in seminary. We had deep and thoughtful discussions regarding white privilege, tokenism, academic and cultural racism.<\/p>\n

White privilege is prevalent in our society and also in our seminary classrooms. Not only do students of color have to overcome the negative aspects of white privilege, so too the professors.<\/p>\n

As theological educators, the question of erasing white privilege within the classroom is an ongoing concern as it brings an extra layer of unwelcome dynamic within the classroom. Many seminaries do not want to tackle this difficult problem; therefore the question of white privilege is ignored or pushed to the margins.\u00a0In many ways, seminaries become blind to the issue of white privilege within the classroom and in the institution.<\/p>\n

Different countries deal with ethnic minority issues in various ways. I grew up as a Korean immigrant in Canada. Canada is a land of immigrants, where people from all over the world come to live. In Canada, the term used by governments for \u201cpeople of color\u201d is \u201cvisible minorities\u201d. I grew up knowing and internalizing that somehow I was a \u2018visible minority\u201d. But what does it mean to be \u2018visible\u2019 and a \u201cminority.\u201d In some ways, this term labeled me as someone who stands \u2018out\u2019 in a crowd. My face and body became racialized by a society which did not want to accept me as \u2018normal\u2019. The irony is that even though I was labeled a \u2018visible minority\u2019, I become invisible when it came to issues of race, ethnicity and religious heritage. My visibleness becomes invisible to those in power when the status quo is challenged or provoked.\u00a0When I reflect upon the colonialism of Puerto Rico, I cannot help linking the\u00a0\u201cvisible minority\u201d to Puerto Rico as viewed by the United States. It is a territory of the U.S. with Commonwealth status which eliminates much of their power and status as a nation. Puerto Ricans are allowed to vote during the U.S. primaries but not during the U.S. general elections. Puerto Rico has been used by the United States to produce cheap goods for Americans to use. Thus in many ways Puerto Rico has become an \u2018invisible minority\u201d whose real problems, struggles and dreams have been ignored and erased.<\/p>\n

As we bring this back into our classrooms, we must not make the \u2018racialized minorities\u2019 within the classroom invisible. We cannot ignore their issues. We must move forward and tackle them. We need to work urgently towards a theological education which will be inviting and inclusive of all people. Theological education needs to identify and name \u2018white privilege\u2019 within our classrooms and seek diversity, intercultural, and multi-contextual ways of learning and teaching so that all those whom God calls are valued equally.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rev. Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim<\/a>\u00a0received her M.Div. from\u00a0Knox College<\/a>\u00a0and her Ph.D. from the\u00a0University of Toronto<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0is an Associate Professor of Doctrinal Theology and the Director of the Master of Arts in Theological Studies program at\u00a0Moravian Theological Seminary<\/a>.\u00a0She is the author of two books,\u00a0The Grace of Sophia: A Korean North American Women\u2019s Christology<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Holy Spirit, Chi, and the Other: A Model of Global and Intercultural Pneumatology<\/a><\/em>. Grace was recently ordained as a Teaching Elder in the\u00a0Presbyterian Church (USA)<\/a>\u00a0and also blogs for\u00a099 Brattle<\/a>\u00a0and at\u00a0gracejisunkim.<\/a><\/p>\n

I occasionally host guest bloggers on my blog<\/a> to expand the breadth of topics I cover as well as help share the perspectives and ideas of people who I feel are\u00a0particularly\u00a0compelling. \u00a0If you think you have a great idea or know of someone who does, please feel free to contact me and let me know.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Puerto Rico is a beautiful island with lakes, rivers, mountains, rainforests and of course picturesque beaches. I received a warm welcome at the airport in San Juan: 92 degrees with 74% humidity. Despite the hot, humid weather conditions, I went with eagerness to explore the culture, history, and tradition of Puerto Rico and reflect upon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":5271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[244,17],"tags":[16624,16578,17223,17224,17225,17226,17222,17227,17221,17220,17228,16651],"class_list":["post-5269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-politics","category-faith-religion","tag-grace-ji-sun-kim","tag-guest-blogger","tag-james-g-k-mcclure","tag-james-mcclure","tag-luis-rivera-rodriguez","tag-mccormick-theological-seminary","tag-puerto-rico","tag-seminario-evangelico-de-puerto-rico","tag-theological-education","tag-through-hispanic-eyes","tag-tokenism","tag-white-privilege"],"yoast_head":"\nGrace Ji-Sun Kim \u2013 \u201cThrough Hispanic Eyes\u201d - Theological Education and White Privilege<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Puerto Rico is a beautiful island with lakes, rivers, mountains, rainforests and of course picturesque beaches. 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