WRIT 150: Writing and Critical Reasoning

Human Values & Belief Systems

Section 64500: TTh 11:00AM-12:20PM, GFS 114

(i have just 10 minutes to walk so nerdly to the next class; please forgive me if i ask that we walk there together; i'll pretend i'm not feeling the rush, swearsies.)

Section 64635: TTh 12:30-1:50PM, TTH 203

Instructor: Carlos Antonio Delgado

Email: cadelgad@usc.edu

Office Hours: Use my Calendly to make appointments in 15-minute increments;

Office: JEF 237 or ZOOM

phone: (562) 325-7610 (mobile: if you can get over the awkwardness of texting your teacher, so can i. i'm at your service.)

"Like desire, language disrupts, refuses to be contained within boundaries. It speaks itself against our will, in words and thoughts that intrude, even violate the most private spaces of mind and body. It was in my first year of college that I read Adrienne Rich's poem, 'The Burning of Paper Instead of Children.' That poem, speaking against domination, against racism and class oppression, attempts to illustrate graphically that stopping the political persecution and torture of living beings is a more vital issue than censorship, than burning books. One line of this poem that moved and disturbed something within me: 'This is the oppressor's language yet I need it to talk to you.' I've never forgotten it. Perhaps I could not have forgotten it even if I tried to erase it from memory. Words impose themselves, take root in our memory against our will. The words of this poem begat a life in my memory that I could not abort or change."

—bell hooks, from Teaching to Transgress

we arrive to this class smart, hard-working, willing.

you arrive into this space having earned my trust already. even so,

we might also arrive intimidated, self- doubting, a little

nervous, maybe afraid, maybe

anxious about the future, maybe wondering

whether we’re smart enough or

good enough to go out there & make good.

we ask ourselves, do

i belong? will

i belong?

(i know the feeling; it can be so heavy, so dark.)

these are honest feelings, normal feelings, unsurprising to anyone you tell them to,

feelings we might try to help you disagree with—

but they are feelings that can’t be talked or pretended away.

this is just how it works. so we learn to accept them, rattle them out

when we can, & be kind to ourselves, to our doubts.

they are part of us.

but even as we accept heavy dark

feelings, & even as we invite them

to be explored & doubted—still, along with

those honest feelings i invite us to practice something

deeper and more important:

a central truth for any place you’ll ever go:

we arrive here gifts to one another.

your experience, your insights,

your Story, your feelings,

your ideas, your hopes,

your inward-going—

your whole life

—is a gift.

so we accept each other as gifts, &

we present ourselves as gifts,

because even as we doubt ourselves,

we can still always be learning to

trust that we actually are

...gifts.

as we study together, as we learn to

notice & express the beautiful horrifying world,

may we see ourselves first as a gift we offer to the world.

let’s begin here, in that merciful, wonderful truth.