February
2
ELA B10: Feb 2 Difference between racism and ignorance?
- I had a procedure list on the smartboard when students came in, which looked like work and caused groans but we actually had some great discussions today. Students orally summarized the main focus of the story we read last class with different students contributing the stereotypes Mrs. Wilson had about Black people.
- I asked the class to consider on their own whether they thought her actions were rude, racist or ignorant? I polled the class and we wrote the number beside each word of how many people in the room beleived which term. (The majority of people decided her actions were racists more than anything else.)
- Next, I asked them to define for themselves on their paper those same terms. They volunteered their definitions and some were a little surprised at the actual definition of “ignorant” – someone uneducated or unaware of things. Once again, then, I asked them to choose which of the three words they thought her actions were best described by. This time, instead of mostly choosing “racist”, the majority agreed her actions were more ignorant than anything else.This didn’t excuse her actions, we agreed. I asked them to consider then which of the two words were worse – to be racist or ignorant? It started a whole other conversation but one which all students participated in so I was very pleased.
- Before introducing the next piece of literature, a poem about the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, we talked about the reality that even though civil laws may change and “equality” is given to all men, the hearts and minds of people themselves are VERY slow to change. I described for them a scene in the novel I’ve been reading during DEAR time, The Secret Life of Bees where a Black woman is proudly on her way to go vote for the first time but is encountered by some red neck older men. They poke fun at her and joke that she won’t be able to vote because one of the stipulations for a Black person voting at the time was that they’d have to be able to spell their name correctly and write in perfect cursive writing. This woman’s response to the men is to pour out her tobacco chew juice over their shoes… in perfect cursive spelling out her name. Well, things got dicey after that!
- I tried to focus on the idea that even though, today, we know the laws are much more protective for visual minority groups, there are still some who do not feel safe and will ever-so-politely go along with law enforcement officers just to avoid any conflict with them. On the other side of this, though, are the people who are sick of having to walk on pins and needles and are almost aggressive because of their pent up frustration over years of discrimination and prejudice.To highlight this idea, these opposite approaches to the same situation, I showed a portion of the film Crash. If the language were not as bad as it is, I would love to share this movie with the class, but they got the impact of the story from this short clip where a Black modern-day, wealthy couple were pulled over by police. The officer took advantage of the husband’s humility and fear, while the man’s wife became beligerent and aggressive, causing things to get out of hand. At their home, soon after though, she accuses her husband of acting too carefully out of the fear that his name would show up in the paper and his friends would ‘actually realize [he is] Black!” Again, this is decades after civil rights changes in the U.S., but that desired “equality” is still not really achieved.
- This all was the lead in to the story behind Rosa Parks and that one fateful day, where “It Happened in Montgomery”. We read it through together, the students found several examples of figurative language, and then did a quick three minute quick write from the first person perspective of someone present during that day.