The phrase collective can be used in many different ways. It can be used as a collective noun, i.e. audience, committee, government, which names a group of individuals or things with a singular form. For instance, as is declared in the Declaration of Independence, “We Hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…”. The word “all men” is used as a collective noun to refer to all people. https://youtu.be/wGgQrxTcBqg
In the same way, Collective Value as one of the guiding principles in the Black Lives Matter Community which means that all Black lives, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religious beliefs or disbeliefs, immigrant status or location, matter. The collective value is a group of people “the minority within the minority” that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective.
What is the common objective of the collective value? The objective is to obtain these unalienable rights. Because these rights are inherently endowed to us by our Creator, people cannot be deprived of the enjoyment of life and liberty. Throughout history we have seen that these inherent unalienable rights have been challenged and not equally enjoyed by all people. As such, many tools have been used for oppression, and with the wide spread growth of social media, the tools are constantly evolving.
As Obama so clearly states, " that those these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executed."
Thanks for your post Dena. I appreciate the way you honed in on "collective value" and linked the idea of the collective with the constitution (flawed and sexist as it is) and the words of Obama. I want to know more about how you see the readings/ videos that come out of this BLM lesson plan as reflecting/ challenging/ pushing/ embodying "collective value."
ReplyDeleteAlso, can you try a larger font?
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