Ouvre ta porte, Ouvre ton couer
english translation: http://learnspeak.blogspot.com/2006/09/lhomme-qui-te-ressemble-english.html
This poem by Rene Philombe is a great example of what diversity means to me and is a great way to show students that even in the literature that questions about diversity come up. The poem is about a man who questions another man, calling him brother, why he cares about his skin color, how long his nose is, how thick his lips are or what are the names of his gods. I truly love this poem and have found that when I was taught french through this poem I came to understand how important pointing out differences are and why they were important. This poem brings up these shallow questions that we ask openly or internally when facing some with culturally different backgrounds, the poem has made me catch myself when facing people of different backgrounds, how some of these questions can be perceived as racists and distasteful. Yet after studying the poem and understanding the term diversity more I have come to view these questions as just questions. I do not question someone with these in order to label that person but instead to understand their culture better. I ask about language, about customs, about anything that I find different but also interesting. I have learned that putting these questions aside and hiding from them does not help the problem we face with confronting diversity, instead people shy away from confrontation in expressing others differences. I want to know these differences and to celebrate them, I want to understand my students better and allow them safety in knowing that yes they are different but these little differences do not make up the whole person. Experiences, hopes, dreams, fears, culture, all of these attribute to each person. I want to acknowledge my students differences but also show them that they are still my brother and that there is more to their person than just differences in appearance and beliefs.
Ms. Smith 