A black-and-white belief

This semester I am taking a class called Community Engagement Through the Arts. The class is what you would call "unconventional;" each week takes us outside the confines of Transy's campus to meet at a local Capoiera center. At the center we meet with community members and organizers in the "North Limestone Neighborhood." The purpose of the class is to connect Transylvania with its surrounding community, and give us, the students, a new perspective on a place that is often presented as different and dangerous.

For those of you reading this who have never visited Lexington, Ky., or Transylvania University, I'll paint you a little picture. Transy is located on the North Side of Lexington, on the opposite side of the University of Kentucky. Our campus is situated between an affluent downtown area known as Gratz Park, and a poorer and more diverse area known as the North Limestone Neighborhood. Both areas are historic and interesting in their own way, but they both have very different reputations. The North Limestone Neighborhood is often called "the ghetto of Lexington" and students are warned when we arrive on campus not to go to that neighborhood alone. Transy has also made it seem that the people from that neighborhood are not welcome on our campus. This class is working to change that.

We have also been assigned writing assignments called "This I Believe" each week. The essays are modeled off the popular show on NPR. I have now written eight of these essays, and each week it gets harder and harder to pinpoint one belief that I can explain in 300-350 words. As I explore each of my beliefs that are to be shared with the world in the context of the class, I find myself boiling down to one, Social Justice. I am not a black-and-white thinker, so it is hard to come up with a black-and-white "I believe __." Instead, I usually come up with some gray belief that can be changed with a new tidbit of information or depending on the situation.

I do not think we should hold our beliefs too high above everyone else's. However, I have re-discovered through the course of this class that I wholeheartedly and completely black-and-white-ly believe in social justice. I think it is a fundamental family value that should be a belief of everyone. When I think about the beliefs I hold dearest, they are all driven by a desire for social justice. Seeing the neighborhood right next-door to the white walls of my institution of higher learning, I feel the need for social justice. I know that my belief alone can not change the world, but I can help. I am learning that there are small things each of us can do to change the social landscape and, hopefully, make someone feel like they have a better shot in the world, or a better future ahead of them. I went into this class with no expectations, and have learned through the course of it what I believe and how we can work together to change the world, one person, one neighborhood, and one college at a time.