E Pluribus Unum on Zoom

A human being holding our planet Earth in their hands.

Out of many, one. One giant rectangle with many boxes inside of it. To start and end the class. In between, shared screens, breakout rooms, internet links, Google Documents, and emails sent to the class. And a 10-minute break in the middle.

Sayareh is tense and appreciative. It’s 6am in Iran. She tumbles out of bed, goes for an early morning walk, makes her tea, and joins our online class, which is now halfway through. She’s still on 24-hour duty taking care of her sick husband, who has colon cancer and isn’t improving. It takes a toll on her. She can’t sleep well. She joined the class last year, with the computer help of her adult daughter, who is back in Berkeley. She is proud of her daughter, an actress who also writes plays. Sayareh’s mother died before she could return to Iran. It weighs on her, that she couldn’t say goodbye while holding her mother’s hand. Sayareh speaks very well for our class level, but like most of my students, she hasn’t done much writing in English.

I paired Sayareh with Ameera, a mother of two young children. Ameera has turned her camera on, upon Sayareh’s request. This is the first time I’ve seen Ameera, who also joined my class last year. From Yemen, and now living in the Bay Area, Ameera’s Zoom box shows only her name, her camera always off when she joins. She is shy when I enter their personal breakout room. She angles her phone camera toward…