After listening to the podcasts on science and public policy, choose one of the podcasts that was of a different topic than your own. Answer the reflection questions:
The story of the aboriginal children taken from their families (often refered to as the “stolen generation”) was detailed in the government report entitled “ Bringing Them Home: The ‘Stolen Children’ Report (1997.)” In order to complete this blog, you must go to the website below, and read and reflect upon the effects of this period in Australian history on the indigenous aboriginal culture.
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/about/personal_stories.html
-Read some of the individual’s personal experiences about this period of time and answer the following onyour blog page:
-Reflect on your own personal reaction to these accounts -state your opinion clearly and refer specifically to the stories in support.
-What appears to be the effect across generations of the actions in these accounts. Reflect on its effects in three of the areas listed below. How did it affect the ability of the indigenous people to
Be sure to use information from the stories to show your reasoning for your conclusions.
Source I: “Incident”
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.
– Countee Cullen
Source II: “The House on Mango Street”
“ Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake.
But we aren’t afraid. We know the guy with the crooked eye is Davey the Baby’s brother: and the tall one next to him in the straw brim, Rosa’s Eddie V and the big one that looks like a dumb grown man, he’s Fat Boy, though he’s not fat anymore, nor a boy.
All brown all round, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah, that is how it goes and goes.”
By Sandra Cisneros
1. Point out examples of discrimination and stereotypes are used in the story.
2. Why is belonging to a group so important to us and to our identity?
3. Who are the outsiders in this story? Who or what determines who the “outsider” will be?
4. In The House on Mango Street., Sandra Cisneros writes of “ those who don’t know better.” What is she saying about how people create the “us” vs. “them” perceptions in our world.
Source III: “Street Calculus”
Source IV: “The Lunch Date”
1. What is the setting for the film?
2. Describe the major character and her point of view throughout the film.
3. What is the action of the story — what happens?
4. What is the demeanor of the major character at the end of the film?
5. Interpret the story for us –how does it fit in with what we have studied to date?
V: Your Personal Identity
Write two paragraphs about yourself. In the first paragraph describe all the influences on your life that have helped to shape your identity: Recall where we began and how we examined the identity of the “Part-time Indian” . Describe your personal identity in a similar manner.
In the second paragraph describe 3 major events in your life which you think have helped to shape your identity. Some of these may be institutional – i.e. where you go to school and when – and others might pertain personally just to you. Make sure you show how they helped to shape who you are.
VI: Sum It Up!
Show how each of the five exercises in the quest illustrate how our identity as individuals, community members and citizens is formed. Which influences do these exercises show about our identity?
You will be taking an on-line test to see what associations you implicitly make about race. The test requires you enter some demographic information first and then take the test. You should set aside 20-30 minutes to take the test and fully read and analyze your results. Be sure to read the descriptive information about the test carefully. Follow all test instructions exactly and read fully about your results.
1. Go to https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
2. Click on ‘demonstration’, read the overview and click on ‘Go to Demonstration Tests’
3. Read the Preliminary Information and click on “I wish to proceed”
4. Click on ONE of the tests having to do with race (Native American IAT, Skin-tone IAT, Asian IAT, Race IAT)
5. If you see a green check mark, click “Click Here to Begin” Follow the directions carefully while taking the test.
6. Answer the following questions about the experience:
Looking at the structures that nurture bias and discrimination:
Directions: Choose ONE of the readings below and answer the questions that follow.
Reading #1 – Joseph H. Suina, a professor of education and a member of the Cochiti Pueblo, recalls the effects stereotyping had on his behavior in the Marines.
From the moment my comrades in the military discovered I was an Indian, I was treated differently. My name disappeared. I was no longer Suina, Joseph, or Joe. Suddenly, I was Chief, Indian, or Tonto. Occasionally, I was referred to as Geronimo, Crazy Horse or some other well-known warrior from the past. It was almost always with an affection that develops in a family, but clearly, I was seen in the light of stereotypes that my fellow Marines from around the country had about Native Americans.
Natives were few in the Marine Corps. Occasionally, I’d run across one from another battalion. Sure enough, just like me, each of them was “Chief” or “Indian.” Machismo is very important in the Corps and names such as Chief and Crazy Horse were affirmations of very desirable qualities for those entering combat situations. Good warriors, good fighting men, we were to be skilled in reading the land, notable for our physical prowess, renowned for our bravery. In addition, we were to drink to the point of total inebriation or to be in the midst of a barroom brawl before the night was over. Never permitted to assume leadership, but always in the role of supportive and faithful companion, just like the Lone Ranger’s Tonto.
Personally, I was anything but combatant, and my experiences with alcohol had been limited to two or three beers prior to my enlistment. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that I would be accorded the characteristics of a noble and reckless warrior. Since these traits were held in such high esteem, I enjoyed the status and acceptance they afforded me among the men. My own platoon commander singled me out to compete in a rope-climbing event at a regimental field meet. After I easily won that contest (my Pueblo life had included a great deal of wood chopping), my stature as chief increased.
I actually began to believe that I had those qualities and started behaving in accord with the stereotypes. Later during my two tours of duty in Vietnam, I played out my expected role quite well. I went on twice as many search and destroy missions as others; I took “the point” more often than anyone else. After all, couldn’t I hear, see, smell, and react to signs of the enemy better than any of my comrades? On shore leave, I learned to drink with the best of them and always managed to find trouble.
Almost a full year beyond my four years of enlistment, I was recovered from my second set of wounds and finally discharged. I had earned two purple hearts, a bronze star, the Gallantry Cross (Vietnam’s highest military award at the time), and numerous other combat expedition medals. I also had, on my record, time in jails in Japan, the Philippines, and Mexico.
Reading #2 – Over twenty years later, Jeanne Park, a student at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, describes her experience with stereotypes.
Who am I?
For Asian-American students, the answer is a diligent, hardworking and intelligent young person. But living up to this reputation has secretly haunted me.
The labeling starts in elementary school. It’s not uncommon for a teacher to remark, “You’re Asian, you’re supposed to do well in math.” The underlying message is, “You’re Asian and you’re supposed to be smarter.”
Not to say being labeled intelligent isn’t flattering, because it is, or not to deny that basking in the limelight of being top of my class isn’t ego-boosting, because frankly it is. But at a certain point, the pressure became crushing. I felt as if doing poorly on my next spelling quiz would stain the exalted reputation of all Asian students forever.
So I continued to be an academic overachiever, as were my friends. By junior high school I started to believe I was indeed smarter. I became condescending toward non-Asians. I was a bigot; all my friends were Asians. The thought of intermingling occurred rarely if ever.
My elitist opinion of Asian students changed, however, in high school. As a student at what is considered one of the nation’s most competitive science and math schools, I found that being on top is no longer an easy feat.
I quickly learned that Asian students were not smarter. How could I ever have believed such a thing? All around me are intelligent, ambitious people who are not only Asian but white, black and Hispanic.
Superiority complexes aside, the problem of social segregation still exists in the schools. With few exceptions, each race socializes only with its “own kind.”
Students see one another in the classroom, but outside the classroom there remains distinct segregation.
Racist lingo abounds. An Asian student who socializes only with other Asians is believed to be an Asian Supremacist or, at the very least, arrogant and closed off. Yet an Asian student who socializes only with whites is called a “twinkie,” one who is yellow on the outside but white on the inside.
A white teenager who socializes only with whites is thought of as prejudiced, yet one who socializes with Asians is considered an “egg,” white on the outside and yellow on the inside.
These culinary classifications go on endlessly, needless to say, leaving many confused, and leaving many more fearful than ever of social experimentation. Because the stereotypes are accepted almost unanimously, they are rarely challenged. Many develop harmful stereotypes of entire races. We label people before we even know them.
Labels learned at a young age later metamorphose into more visible acts of racism. For example, my parents once accused and ultimately fired a Puerto Rican cashier, believing she had stolen $200 from the register at their grocery store. They later learned it was a mistake. An Asian shopkeeper nearby once beat a young Hispanic youth who worked there with a baseball bat because he believed the boy to be lazy and dishonest.
We all hold misleading stereotypes of people that limit us as individuals in that we cheat ourselves out of the benefits different cultures can contribute. We can grow and learn from each culture whether it be Chinese, Korean or African-American.
Just recently some Asian boys in my neighborhood were attacked by a group of young white boys who have christened themselves the Master Race. Rather than being angered by this act, I feel pity for this generation that lives in a state of bigotry.
It may be too late for our parents’ generation to accept that each person can only be judged for the characteristics that set him or her apart as an individual. We, however, can do better.
Questions:
Click on any link to the right to go to one of your peer’s (NOT your partners) blog page. Listen to their identity podcast and reflect upon their story…
Watch/listen to Jesus Colon’s essay. Answer the following:
Directions: Consider what we have discussed this week in class and reflect on the following two questions. Both answers should be about a paragraph in length AND should reference what has been done in class (identity charts, introvert vs. extrovert, Part Time Indian reading, The Bear That Wasn’t film)
Reflection #1:
Given what we have discussed in class, how is our identity formed? To what extent are we defined by our talents, tastes, interests, ethnic group, religion, nation, and genetics?
Reflection #2:
Psychologist Deborah Tannen warns of our tendency to generalize about the things we observe and the people we encounter. “Generalizations, while capturing similarities,” she points out, “obscure differences. Everyone is shaped by innumerable influences such as ethnicity, religion, class, race, age, profession, the geographical regions they and their relatives have lived in, and many other group identities all mingled with individual personality and predilection.” Why do we generalize? What problems arise when we ‘capture similarities’ but ‘obscure differences’?