Notebook 5
I’ve always said that I hate learning about history. And of course I did - what have we been taught in history classes? We’ve been taught the master narrative, the story of the world as White America would like it told. This class as a whole and having to actively engage in creating a zine that attempted to tell, what I now realize to be, a counter narrative - this has given me a new perspective. While I was creating this zine, I thought back to the Hawaiian Studies class I took in 6th grade and I remembered how engaged I was in the material we were being taught. It was interesting to be taught something that didn’t necessarily support the country I belonged to. And then it hit me, I don’t hate learning about history. I want to know more about the history of colonization, and cultures as they stood before missionaries and voyagers sailed in from ‘developed’ worlds. I want to learn about everything that is left out of the history books. I want to learn about the badass queer women of color throughout history, and I want to feel like I exist, like I’ve always been here - because of course I have. Professor Wayne has also made me realize that it’s not enough to just be willing to learn this omitted history, you must also be willing to actively engage with it and to think about it critically. And especially think critically about those things that are reinforced, that go with the grain - don’t blindly accept information just because you have been told it many times.
