October 26, 2012

  • Racial Thoughts, Uncovered.

    On Wednesday, I assigned the Racial Experiment prompt.

    I maybe shouldn't have been shocked that it was pretty split down the middle; some thought their life would be VERY different, some thought nothing would change. There were also some sprinklings of racist comments. I don't know what to do with those; I'm thinking of just reading aloud (in the 1pm and 3pm classes = they seemed to be the most opinionated) the most intriguing responses where students thought critically about how A LOT would change. And how they would be looked at differently.
    I guess it shows me how some students, whether they are "racist" or not, can't wrap their heads about what it is like to BE in others' shoes! 
    Yes, they might have the same faith, but they would've had parents with different backgrounds, too, so they might have pushed them to do other things. Sure, there aren't "black farmers," so what else would your parents be doing for work/career then? Think think think... it's complex, for sure.
    And a handful used the term "colored." This saddens me to no end. I mean, really, guys? Let's get with the program & if we must label people, let's label them appropriately by their backgrounds. Plus, there were a few who claimed they'd use the "race card" or whatever. Jeeeezus. So disappointed with how they think.
    *shakes head*
    I know I can't change minds, but what can my course of action be with this? Maybe by just having it as a prompt, that will help the neurons in their stale melons to make some noise? I should look through the prompts I had them create to see what they threw at me after we responded to this one. (Yes, I had them create prompts after responding to the race one. So, those could be interesting, to say the least.)
    Last thought: Many just figured that WHITE covered everything. Many were okay with lumping German with French and Norwegian when really those cultures are VERY different... different histories, etc. Yeah.