I think this post is an excellent example of why we strive for cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity on our teams. We know that the more diverse the group, the more rich and thoughtful experiences become. ASB (and service in general) presents many layers of injustice amidst even more power structures. Why is it that CCC has predominantly white volunteers? Why is Long Beach in better shape than the 9th ward? Why is the French Quarter almost completely rebuilt? These are big questions with even bigger consequences.

The experiences we share on ASB offer great potential to serve as a venue for these difficult conversations we often don’t have the courage (or time) to have. Concepts like white privilege, internalized racism, economic disparity and other inequalities often smack us right in the face on these trips. It’s important that we make it a priority to have this dialog…to have the courage to share our opinions and the respect to HEAR those of others.

I thank you, Clarence, for having the courage to express your thoughts. What’s equally important as the dialog is figuring out what to do about it. How do we bring these deep questions back to our daily lives? Are there steps we can take to continue this work in a more meaningful way? What are we going to do with these experiences when we get back to College Hill?

I hope you’ll consider sharing the topics of your post in one of your team reflections. Aristotle said, “It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.” How do we make this work a habit? How do we make these tough questions a habit? That’s what I hope we can gain from ASB…

First, let me say you have moxy. More than I could likely muster in a public space like this, but I do have a question. Might economic advantage play a significant role in allowing those who are able to help with such a tremendous disaster such as this? Secondly, major kudos to you for making the effort to volunteer this week. I’ve only had gumbo once it New Orleans, but it wasn’t homemade. It was still tasty though.

I remember when Hurricane Andrew hit the Florida coast in August 1992. I was a senior in high school and my friend went with his family on a trip to help some of the communities down there. His family, though not living on “easy street,” most likely maintained a higher income than my family—his father was a software engineer I believe—so it was likely easier for them to take a week or so off of work and to pay for the airfare to fly down there from Pennsylvania. It’s not that I wasn’t interested in helping, but rather I was simply unable to go; my family couldn’t afford it as easily.

Please understand that I’m not saying all of those with means are the only ones able to help. I bet there are a number of those with means, for whatever reason, unwilling to assist (or are blind to what is needed) and a number of those with little means who want to help, but daily logistics simply make it too hard to make it a reasonable offering.

I hope I can even weigh in on this conversation with any credibility as I’m sitting in my home and not serving on one of these trips. Regardless, I think we need to schedule that lunch we’ve been putting off. I’d like to hear more of your side on this issue.