- Autobiography
- A Break in Family
- Childhood Years
- Judging People on My Experience
- At Home
- Parents, Home, Neighbors
- Early Lessons about Race/Ethnicity
- Early “Organizational” Life
- Church and Christian Contradictions
- Silent Prejudices
- Classes and Class
- College & the Beginning of the End of Innocence
- War without War
- A Lesson in Manipulative Power
- Decision for Ministry
- Preparing for Ministry
- Academic Major at Amherst
- Extra-Curricula Learning at Amherst – Enter Bill & Alice Wimer
- Unrecognized Introduction to Feminism
- Sylvia
- Andover Newton Theological School
- Church Pastorates
- Denominational Staff Ministry
- Wakefield
- From “Black Problem” to “White Problem”
- Stealth-Like Learnings: “Sexism”, “Racism” and Institutions
- Shifting Sands of Faith Demand Action
- Advancing “dis-ease”
- Changing View of the World
- The New Beginning
- Genesis of Community Change, Inc.
- The Early Years at CCI
- Boston’s Struggle for Equal Schools
- Attention to National Issues
- People Participating = Hope
- Enter: James Baldwin
- White Identity Challenged
- Urgency Requires Anti-Apartheid Action
- Suburban Operations Simulation
- Police Brutality
- Local Organizing and Seeking Ways to Combat Racism
- The Move to Boston
- “People”, “People”, “People”
- Moral Man and Immoral Society
- The “office” not an “OFFICE”
- Probing History Moves to the Center of Work
- Affirmative Action
- Little GIANTS
- Expanding the Work
- National Day of Mourning
- Chinatown and Beyond
- “People” not “leaders”
- 1492 Becomes 1992
- Harassment of Black Leaders
- Immigrant Action
- The Photography Collective
- Following (not very well!) Freire
- Enter Derrick Bell
- Using “Privilege to Subvert “Privilege”
- Becoming a Historian
- On the Trail Where Yesterday Inspires, Challenges Today
The Photography Collective was one way we tried to reach and awaken the consciousness of white people. Then came a still different attempt to do the same. This effort was built on what I am sure was an uninformed understanding of Paulo Freire’s early work in South America. His work in helping people to become literate often involved the use of images, which helped learners to identify both letters and their meanings. In the process he discovered that people often became aware of social contradictions which restricted both their learning and their lives. This consciousness of those contradictions became motivation for changing the oppressive conditions of life. The literacy program suddenly became the ground of revolutionary ideas which threatened the status quo.
We often wondered if there was any possible way of adopting the Freire model to white, middle-class America, some way of shaking the perceptions of a perfect status quo. One simple experiment in a suburban community involved people with cameras going through their community, photographing scenes, places, people in contexts, which represented “contradictions”. One group of people took interesting photos of the rear alleys behind the buildings fronting on their Main Street. The differences between the lovely front facades and landscaping seemed to them to be “contradicted” by the alleys. Behind the buildings were trash barrels overflowing, wasted food from diners, discarded furniture, presenting a different “picture” of their community. For a host of reasons we had to abandon the idea. Still, it remains for me an example of attempted innovation which was worthwhile, though it failed.