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(Saphia flips through a photo album.)
SAPHIA (VO): To me, oppositional consciousness means remaining aware that whatever dominant narrative you’re being fed is just one of many narratives, and that the very opposite of the narrative you’re hearing may be true. In a way, I think I’ve had an oppositional consciousness since I was very young. And I think I can credit it in large part to the fact that when I was two, my immigrant father was exiled from the United States. Though I didn’t fully understand why, I knew the US was not the promised land my teachers said it was. And so, at age five, when I was asked to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance on the first day of kindergarten, I refused. My teacher was outraged, and called my mother, my mother defended me, and for the rest of the year, while my class stood every morning with their hands over their hearts, I sat and I drew. Nothing had come over me, that first day when I refused to follow my teacher’s instruction. I just looked at the flag, at the teacher demonstrating how to hold your right hand over your heart, and knew I could not do what she was asking. It was as if oppositional consciousness was sewn into my heart the day my father drove off toward the Canadian border.
(Fade to outro.)
