Justin J. Bain
PhD Student in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric
Syracuse University
315-443-1412
jjbain@syr.edu
Projects: A Witness to Silence
…why most of the great works of humanity have come from lives (able to be) wholly surrendered and dedicated? How else sustain the constant toil, the frightful task, the terrible law, the continuity? Full self: this means full time as and when needed for the work.
Unclean; taboo. The Devil’s Gateway. The three steps behind; the girl babies drowned in the river; the boy baby strapped to the back. Buried alive with the lord, burned alive on the funeral pyre, burned as witch at stake. Stoned to death for adultery. Beaten, raped. Bartered. Bought and sold… Illiterate. Denied vision. Excluded, excluded, excluded…
…Tillie Olson, Silences
A Witness to Silence
Who am I to write? Why do I get to? All the white students at Yosemite Middle School—south side Fresno, CA—all 12 of us, are in Track C: GATE. 5000 students and 25 of us get all the books, get the teachers with MA’s, and get out of 1 shop course per year. Those who weren’t white were not first generation, English was their first language. Their names were John instead of Juan and Zong instead of Xiong. We were from the same neighborhoods as 4975 other kids, but when it came down to resources, we got them.
McLane High School, 1991-92 school year, entering freshman class of 4500. Not the best school in town. 30 students this time—tracked—same classes with same students all 4 years. No shops at all this time. 3 teachers with PhD’s. 1995 now, graduating on time, 434 students. Somewhere along the way just under 4100 students were lost. Lost to jobs, to family needs, to poor grades, to drugs, killed on campus. Silenced. Funny outcome: test grades rise 45% between junior and senior years regardless of subject. Sad reason: over half the student body drops out, disappears, or is sent to continuation. Silenced.
434 graduate, 55 accepted to the local state college, myself and 29 classmates constitute over half of these. Another 200 or so get into City, become someone else’s silent fact. Statistic. Remedial. Technical and vocational training. They get spoken for, or spoken over, but don’t speak. And write? Why? For whom? Who would read it? Writing is something that comes in the mail, in bills, in evictions.
I’m mailed an article by my mom 3 weeks ago. Two friends from the high school soccer team shot by police for stealing a car. Leaves behind a baby girl, a wife, and a girlfriend. Mother, siblings. Shooting ruled justified.