SOCS 350N Week 6 Discussion Question 1 & 2

SOCS 350N Week 6 Discussion Question 1 & 2 WEEK 6 PART 1 EXAMING STRATEGIES A Class Divided - What's Your Reaction? In the documentary, A Class Divided, Jane Elliot teaches students & adults about prejudice & discrimination. The subjects learned by being divided into minority & dominant groups & truly felt what it was like to be prejudice & discriminated against. With the children, the teacher took the authoritative role by telling the students the minority group was not as good as the dominant group. Her statements against the minorities were very convincing & she was able to create prejudice amongst the students. With the adults, she divided the group & used the participants own actions & behaviors to create the prejudice. The teacher does a wonderful job of giving a real life example of how discrimination & prejudice can easily arise. She uses a physical characteristic to start a division between two groups of people who, on a normal basis, get along very well. Jane Elliott then uses her power as an authority figure to influence what the groups of people think. Her derogatory comments & persistence in persuading people to believe that one group is better than the other really influences the behavior of people. She is adamant & firm when she speaks negatively about one group which keeps the minority group from wanting to defend themselves. When the teacher is giving the lesson to the children, she makes discrimination familiar to them by having one group get some benefits at lunch & recess. The children are young in this video, & it states that they grew up in a white, Christian town. Most of the children had never experienced discrimination firsth& due to the fact that they were surrounded by people just like them. Jane Elliott was able to reach the children on a personal level by showing them what it feels like to be judged by a simple trait that we have no control over. She really connected to those children & showed them how easily people can be persuaded to believe that one group is better than another. When she was speaking to the group of adults, she used a more direct & harsh way of making her point. She embarrassed the group of people with blue eyes & made them feel inferior & belittled. Her constant derogatory comments made the minority group angry & uncomfortable. She made several comments that the blue eyed group would need more help to accomplish a task, that they were unintelligent, & disrespectful. The documentary demonstrated the impact of discrimination. The interactions & relationships amongst the students changed the minute they were labeled & divided. The dominant group had better test results, more opportunities, & some students behaved in a hateful way towards the minority group. As a result, the minority group felt powerless, sad, & angry towards the dominant group. It was interesting to see they even performed worse on tests as the minority group. All participants, including the students & adults truly experienced what it was like to walk in minorities shoes. According to our textbook, “it is important to remember that we make our attributions based on our perceptions which are subjective judgments & not necessarily factual” (Harvey & Allard, 2012, p.6). In order to create prejudice amongst the students Jane Elliot told the dominant group negative things about the minorities that were untrue. This is similar to the first step in this week’s lesson, “overcome the reluctance to admit that we base our reactions to, or underst&ings of, minority groups on values & assumptions that may not be accurate or factual” (DeVry University, 2014). Through the experience, she was able to demonstrate to the participants why they should not discriminate against people just because they were different. I believe Jane Elliot created a brilliant & effective way to teach discrimination & her strategies should be incorporated into every education program & professional institution. Kathy Reference DeVry University- Week 6 Lesson. (2014). Strategies. Retrieved from Harvey, C. P., & Allard, M. (2012). Underst&ing & managing diversity (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Any Awkward Situations? I know exactly how you feel. This happened to me in one of my clinical rotations where a fellow student commented on this patient's multiple piercings. I had my own opinoin about the twenty or so visible piercings but I was not about to express them. When my fellow classmate made a very negative comment about them to the patient I felt so embarrassed & quickly tried to change the subject too just so all of us can avoid any negative reactions. People need to respect other people's choices & cultural differences. Hate Groups I looked up the KKK & found that their actual website says, "bringing a message of hope & deliverance to White Christian American. A message of love NOT hate." Most of the sites quickly describe it as the violent movement against African Americans. They are also the most "infamous--& oldest--of American hate groups." Saying that, they are trying to show the innocence of their movements & what they st& for. In addition, it's easily a first read to say that they are not doing this out of hate, but out of love. This is simply taken out of their own message from their own quick description (the first link that comes up on Google). To counter this, you have to look past that & realize the reach they are trying to make out to people. They want be able to appeal to others as inviting & caring, but it shouldn't be something to fall for knowing what they really st& for & their purpose. WEEK 6 PART 2 TRADITIONS & CULTURES Your Own Traditions A lot of the family traditions I learned as a child I only practice whenever I go back home to see my family. Being the only one here it's kind of hard to practice them alone. One of the one I still practice though is on Sundays for dinner regardless of whatever meat you are cooking you must cook rice & peas with a salad. I've tried not doing it but it feels weird so I continue. Another tradition my family have & they still do it today is around Christmas time there are certain foods & drink they must have. My family believes that Christmas is not Christmas without Sorrel, rum punch, rum cake, curry goat, roast beef, jerk pork, & all the food you can think of. Unlike here in the US we are not big on gifts but we are when it comes to food & drink. God Grew Tired of Us" – Documentary That was an amazing documentary! I was given a culture shock myself after watching it & realizing how it is our culture to take things for granted. While working at Phoenix Children's Hospital we had a lost boy at the hospital who had just been sent to the U.S. He very quickly was stricken with cancer of the bone. Never once did he have a hopeless look on his face. He was very humble. Although he had cancer he was still so happy to be with us. Have you ever thought you'd have cancer but not care one bit because you are happier & safer than where you were a few months ago? Cancer is one of the scariest things to go through especially with no family to be with you. He was in remission the last time I saw & I hope he is doing great today. I can't imagine the culture shock they had to go through. They were learning what we grew up to be as part of life & everyday living. Learning how to turn on a light & take a shower was amazing to them. These are things we take for granted. We celebrate holidays whereas they were celebrating life. It makes you think twice about what we are rally doing & why we aren't more help to others in need. We should be more friendly on a daily basis because someone might actually need our help. I had many emotions watching this but mostly I was taken back by the reality of how our culture in America is to take for granted everything that is a blessing in life. Effects of an Increase in Interracial Relationships As we learned in previous readings it is harder for darker skinned people to excel in jobs & be considered for a position over a white person. I believe those challenges will remain even when they are older although it might be decades away. I also feel people who discriminate will always exist & they will experience those people one day as oppose to many who never experience it their whole life. Education is the best answer to the problem. By starting now at a young age as the teacher did with her class divided experiment. Teaching the kids at a young age might put a dent in the attitudes of the future. Equity vs. Fairness The definition of equality by the Oxford Dictionary (2015) is "the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, & opportunities." & fairness is defined as the "treatment of people equally without favoritism or discrimination" (Oxford University Press, 2015). Equality differs from fairness in that there is no treatment, it is just a state of being. Everyone is equal, no one is looked at as being inferior or superior than the other person. & fairness is an action resulting in equal treatment. I think in the workplace, to incorporate the two together would be beneficial. Seeing that everyone has equal "status, rights, & opportunities" as well as being treated "without favoritism & discrimination" would provide a workplace in which everyone is taken care of.