Journal Entry 7/2/10

It may be difficult to discern what this photograph is at first glance, but anyone who goes to UC and who looks closely at the picture will see that it is several upperclassmen staring at a group of incoming freshman undergoing orientation. Or maybe it simply looks like people looking at people. Anyway, the point of this image is to show the estrangement between the veterans and the newcomers, a scenario that is common in almost any organization whether intended or not. Students of most educational institutions can relate to this experience from both perspectives. We have all been the awkward first grader or freshman that gets ridiculed when trying to mingle with the older crowd, but by now we have also experienced being the sixth grader or senior that has a choice to make. After reflecting upon your unpleasant experience as the newcomer, you can either choose to pay it forward by acting superior to the incoming class, or you can break the cycle by reaching out to them and making an effort to include everyone.

From grade school all the way through college there are always people coming and going, but this picture conveys much more than a simple territorial squabble between a few lower and upper classmen. This critical moment of deciding whether to judge someone or not can be applied to a number of similar scenarios on a much larger scale. For example, when immigrants come to America looking to begin their new lives they often are met with prejudice from long-time citizens who believe they are above these newcomers in some way (although this is technically a form of hypocrisy since most of us came to this country as immigrants). This picture merely represents one of those moments when the dominant culture has a choice between being a hypocrite and breaking the mold.