Yolanda Is My Co-Teacher

by Kendra Henson

Yolanda performing at St. Albans Pride Benefit.

Imagine sitting in your “Race and Culture” class at the University of Vermont, waiting for your instructor to arrive, when in walks an alien love child. You can’t help but wonder which culture it is that you’ll be learning about.

One of the Burlington queer community’s favorite singer/songwriters made that little flight of imagination a reality. This past semester, Yolanda taught freshmen at the University of Vermont what it’s like to be aware and respectful of differences that exist in our world.

The University of Vermont implemented the class as part of a response to hate crimes and defamation on the campus that had occurred a few years ago.

“I saw pictures of the hateful graffiti that someone scribed in the Living and Learning Center, and it was just horrible,” said Yolanda.

Immediately following the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998, Yolanda received an invitation to lecture in a UVM course taught by Paij Wadley-Bailey. When the university decided to expand the course to include diversity issues such as sexism, racism, and homophobia, it asked Yolanda to teach a section of the “Race and Culture” course.

Wanting to really broaden the range of topics covered in the class, Yolanda invited folks from Genders ‘R Us to come and speak to students about what it was like to be a transgender person.

“The students in the class really opened up a discussion with this group,” Yolanda said, “and seemed to really try and understand what it was like to be in their shoes.”

She also invited Christine Leslie, the university’s Protestant minister to lead a workshop on hate. Students sat down with Christine to look at where hate exists in the Bible and to break down a context of what was written when, where, why, and by and about whom.

According to Yolanda, some students in this class were deeply offended and felt threatened by looking at Christianity in a completely different context. “Some of them felt like we were trying to destroy Christianity,” she said, “and the room did get really tense at certain points of the discussion. We continued to talk about people who have different faiths and how accepting one another for who we all are, as humans, is what is really important.”

Along with discussing diversity with classroom lecturers, the students also took on ‘cultural immersion projects.’

“I had students choose a culture or sub-culture completely different from anything they knew on which to research and present,” said Yolanda. “One group of girls interviewed the Japanese sushi chefs that work at the new Price Chopper store. They even learned how to make sushi and returned to teach the rest of the class.”

Another student, whom Yolanda said seemed like a typical white, heterosexual college male, did a presentation on Malcolm X. Others researched and presented on different religious cultures and one group went to Boston and studied the graffiti sub-culture many people have negative mindsets about.

“I was inspired by the students’ willingness to stretch their boundaries. There were definitely some sticky, uncomfortable discussions,” said Yolanda, “but it was amazing to see how respectful they were to the guests and to each other. It was a true safe space where no one was criticized or belittled.”