Dewi Ochoa

Documentation:
HD361: Social and Political Context of Human Development
Capstone: HD 397
Pacific Oaks College
February 18, 2016

Documentation: HD361: Social and Political Context for Social Development

I took HD 361 my first semester at Pacific Oaks. This was a class on campus and I had a
very different experience from my online classes. One of the things I truly enjoyed about this
class was the community that was built around the table. There was people of different
backgrounds and definitely some strong conversations that came up. There was definitely things
that I wish had been different but there was a lot of deep thinking to be done and we read some
very interesting books.
A very impactful experience for me in this class was when we read the book Privilege,
Power and Difference, and our assignment required us to analyze the privilege we have in our
lives. That assignment opened my eyes to so much of my own privilege that I dont wish to
think about, all the opportunities that I have simply because I can pass for. Im the lesbian that
can pass for straight, or the Mexican who is light skinned and with very little accent to pass for
American-ish. That paper really allowed me to examine who I am, my identity in respect to
others and society. This allowed me to fulfill the SLO1: Student will conduct an analysis of
systemic and historical power and its impact upon their development and the development of
children, adolescents, adults and families; and SLO2: Student will examine her development and
the development of others within multiple identifiers of race, gender, class, sexual orientation,
ability, and other social identifiers, along with their positions and socialization patterns within
systems of privilege and oppression.
We watched a video documentary in this class that changed the way I see the history that
I learned in school growing up. It helped me to change the way that I see race in my own
background. I grew up in Mexico and I had never seen any black people in my community,
except on television, I was under the impression that there were none. The video Black in Latin

America explained the history of black slaves who arrived in the ports of Mexico and how they
become a part of the culture of the country. I thought about black people are portrayed on
Mexican TV and it just didnt make sense to me. This video really opened my eyes to the racism
that there is in my country. What was really interesting was connecting this with the way that
people talk about race in the future. I have heard many people talk about how there will be a time
when all the races will be so mixed that nobody will know their background and we will all be
happy together. I thought about Mexico and in this country in which black and white and native
people have been mixing for hundreds of years, one would think that they would be able to see
beyond race, but this has not been the case. The culture of Mexico hides the black history of our
people. I truly appreciated learning more about race, not only in the United States but in my
country of origin too.
Racism was a heated topic of conversation in our class. This was a group of peole from a
variety of backgrounds and strong conversations came up. One of the downfalls to this was the
fact that there was only one person who by appearance was white, meaning light skin, blond hair
and blue eyes. When race would come up, she was a bit of a target for the white opinion. If she
asked a question that related to racism, she found herself practically attacked. It was interesting
that the professor did not know how to facilitate these heated discussions and often moved the
class to a different topic of conversation rather than moving the conversation along. I often
interfered, the student actually thanked me because she almost dropped the class and was glad
someone had interfered in the conversation. I think that unlike an online class, students in this
class did not have the time to filter their own reactions to triggering questions before responding.
In this class an important contribution I made was to bring in the queer voice to the
group. I feel like in a class of mostly heterosexual students it was important to add a voice for the

LGBT community. While I cannot in reality speak for the experiences of transgender people or
all gay people, I feel like my contributions were to share my personal experience and allow
others to participate and ask questions. The class itself was not geared to discuss this topic and
the book was a terrible choice to discuss what the context of a queer person is this society and
culture. I made it a goal to present excellent literature that could be used to discuss this topic,
but I was disappointed in the little value it was given, and how it felt like it was even avoided
altogether. One of the questions that came up was when someone asked me why I chose to come
out on the first class meeting. When this came up in the conversation I thought it a perfect time
to discuss privilege, I thought it was a great example of what its like to be able to choose to
show my true self or allow for people to make their own assumptions about who I am. Visibility
is important and Im a strong advocate for coming out and letting your true self be seen, it is the
only way to learn about others.
The class over all was a bit disappointment. I had been told that the class was usually not
taken in the first semester and I would be overwhelmed by the class. I did not find this to be the
case. I did have to think a lot outside of my usual, but I thought it was interesting and thought
provoking.