Letter: ‘Truth-Telling Weekend’ in Ferguson

As a graduate student in Theory and Social Foundations Program, I want to invite all UT students, faculty, and staff to “Truth Telling Weekend” in Ferguson and downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The dates are March 13-15, 2015. My classmates and I encourage our UT family to use this alternative spring break to become a part of a larger movement to encourage the Ferguson community to share their stories, which is the source of freedom and equality. The implausible events which took place in Ferguson have shaken our hearts and minds as a society. Michael Brown’s death has raised questions about our own lived experiences as members of a violent society, and the way in which we make sense of them. To engage in freedom is to share our stories.

My classmates and I engaged in qualitative research which was to discover the ways in which a neighborhood practiced the seven principles of Kwanzaa. While listening to the stories of others, we were reminded how we can all benefit and transform our lives to become critical citizens. Kwanzaa Park taught us the power of collectivity and the importance of a consciousness-raising atmosphere to practice truth-telling.

Telling the truth opens the floodgates of freedom, to think critically about our stories, and to share them with other people validates our lives and the lives of those who have not experienced violence. Bearing witness to stories allows us to think critically about our lived experiences and the ways in which we are all connected to a larger social context. Bearing witness to truth as the practice of freedom reminds us that we are here. We are the source of an emerging, liberating knowledge. Spaces of silence and alienation can be filled with trustworthiness and dialogue to create a better society. While laboring with the community of Kwanzaa Park, my classmates and I were all part of a movement of truth-telling as the practice of freedom.

As a result of our work, we are invited to conduct a workshop in Ferguson on the ways in which qualitative research can intervene and transform our communities. Ferguson is the perfect place for truth-telling to be cultivated. The UT family can serve others with such a gift, to speak the truth and help citizens to self-actualize their innate powers to transform their own reality.

Please join the UT students in the TSOC department as we attend Truth Telling Weekend. The dates are March 13-15, 2015. For more information about the trip, contact [email protected]

— Carla J. Pattin, Doctoral student in social foundations of education