Thursday, March 21, 2013

Reflection on Discrimination

http://youtu.be/Ml7eEklNwNE
Here it is. Type this into your search bar and it's the second thing down. It's about a ten minute long video
Here's my reflection on the video and an article we read

After watching the video of these kids and adults be so vicious to each other I was troubled. I think that was the point. I identified with the boy who said that he was so mean because the discriminatory environment gave him an opportunity where “any pent up hostilities could come up.” There’s suddenly a reason to relieve yourself of all the feelings you have towards someone, it’s suddenly okay to do this. It made me queasy. She told the kids that “Prejudice and discrimination are things that people build with in their minds,” and I agree but that doesn’t make them go away. Don’t we need discrimination to go away?
            The article we read was helpful in being a very realistic voice on the issue of prejudice and discrimination. I know I’m not going to be a bad teacher if I have some biases but I still want to be aware of them. One of the main things is taking responsibility for myself and my reactions, thoughts, and actions to others. How do you take critique and still have the confidence to keep going as a teacher? In the article Paul Gorski talked about “celebrating yourself as a total person.” I can realize that the time spent understanding myself will help me to relate and understand others and make me a better teacher. I don’t know if I could do this exercise, I’d probably be the one to crack and not be able to play along with the experiment. It’s too hard to see people go at it that way. But could I do it for these kids? Would showing them this video be enough? I think it is impossible to not have biases as a human being but prejudice can be taken out of the picture. Someday it really won’t matter what skin color we are. I hope. Am I saying this because I’m white? I feel something from these videos from these articles, it’s wrong and discriminating should never feel right. The problem now is being able to reach beyond myself and tell people. That’s the hardest part, that’s what Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Junior, Gandhi and so many more have done, we need action.  Can I do it? All the words are there.

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