Raul

Raul* walks into my community college classroom with a certain swagger.

Most days, he is in sagging pants and has multiple oversized gold medallions around his neck – the kind of gear made popular, often, by hip-hop stars.

His look has the effect of making some faculty a bit nervous – and even some of his fellow students, who lean more to cowboy boots, Abercrombie t-shirts or preppy plaid, seem a bit uncomfortable with him, initially.

But the way that Raul presents himself and the way that he is at heart are two different people. When you spend a few minutes with him, you learn that he writes beautiful poetry. That he can hold his own in debates about everything from the Federal Reserve to the recession to censorship. And that the writings of Jonathan Kozol bring tears to his eyes.

One day this week, I had the chance to ask Raul about his clothing. “Why the hip-hop look?” I asked Raul, an aspiring teacher. “It doesn’t quite seem to fit the person you are now or the person you are becoming.”

“Because the people in my neighborhood aren’t ready for the person that I am becoming – or the person I am now. And that wouldn’t just be inconvenient or uncomfortable – that is the kind of thing, with gangs and everything, that could mean my life. I bet you’d do the same thing, if you were me.”

And really, I think Raul is right – I probably would. Most of us probably would, really.

Eventually, I imagine that Raul will move beyond the code switching that he feels he has to do to survive as he transitions each day from college to his neighborhood, where dropout and violence rates are sky high.

He’s determined to become a teacher and wants to inspire low-income kids to write poetry, to read classic literature – to reach for more than what they see in front of them.

But until he can comfortably make the transition, he will understandably live, in part, by the code of the streets. And it will be the responsibility of me – and others like me – to see beyond his street persona and to treat him like the scholar and the leader that he is.

*Names have been changed.