Gomez studied with the Roma people their position and predicament in Spain. Spain is not alone in its oppression of these people. In Hungary, there are current maltreatment and murder committed against them because of economic hard times. There is a perception of some tax payers that these people have 8 children and do not work, but live off the welfare of the state. (NPR Report, September 2, 2009). In critical pedagogy, we share such current events with students so that they understand the adversity that many groups face in their political, social, and economic life in these times.

 

How can we engage people except through the community? A movement in my community is set on better preparing Hispanic students who will outnumber white students in the university by 2020 for careers and university. Spending time in the American Indian Museum in Washington, D.C. was an important part of my personal development with Native cultures. Knowing the map of where groups and tribes lived prior to contact with European colonization helps put into perspective the history of a place—even if it is only one to two-hundred year old history. Sharing the treatment of indigenous peoples in classrooms must be done in order to educate people about our own radical un- love of people and love of property and money over human life. Native American education in the US took children away from their parents and placed them in boarding schools. Many died of broken hearts. When some returned to the reservation, they were no longer Indian; when they remained off the reservation, they often could not find work or a comfortable life because they were still “Indians”! Knowing this history is very important. A critical pedagogist teaches this history. Going to a Comanche Pow Wow in Walters, Oklahoma was a way for me to observe and experience the beauty of family and tribal pride and connections celebrated by the indigenous Comanches. It is important for people in the US to get past the labels of referring to indigenous peoples as warring tribes when, we perhaps are one of the biggest warring tribes in the world. From now on, every chance I get to talk to and work with indigenous Americans, I am

going to do it. 

 

Finally, I am reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a novel by Sherman Alexie. It is the first-person account of what it is like to be a poor, poor, poor Indian. It is a book that the freshmen and incoming students have read as a Summer Reading project. The students who have read it love it. This a step toward radical love! This is a fun, enticing way to get into the door of entering freshmen minds so that they will not baulk when they hear the word, “diversity” spoken in higher education classes. Critical pedagogists rely on the stories of peoples’ lives to teach social justice. They allow the story to engage students in the difficult issues. Engaging in difficult issues with humor and story is much better than with a big stick and intimidation. Critical pedagogists work in compelling ways with students to learn the incongruities and contradictions of textbook history—getting beyond the facts.