We were assigned to watch two videos: "A Class Divided," and "Mirrors of Privilege." These two videos related to the text that was assigned in this unit, according to my group. The topics of the video dealt with racism, and Monster is a novel that definitely exploits racism. In "A Class Divided," the teacher of a small elementary group of students is taught about racism and segregation in a very interesting way. I liked how she seperated the students into groups of kids who had blue eyes, and groups of kids who had brown eyes. The first day, the kids with brown are were said to be "inferior" in a way, and the blue eyes kids were inferior the second day. This really helped the kids relate how racism is prevalent in society, and how it is a thing in society that is not needed. I personally believe that racism is a pointless thing, and everyone should be created equal in society. Even so, in Monster, Steve (the main character) is a black male living in a bad neighborhood, so when he is accused of a crime he is percieved guilty in the eyes of the jury on day one.
In the video "Mirrors of Privilege," many testimonies are given by people explaining different ways that they have seen racism. One particular story intrigued me. The one testimony involved a female at a race conference. At the conference, a female black professor said she gets up every day and says "she is black." She then proceeded to ask everyone else is they get up and say "I am white." I thought this was incredibly interesting because I never thought about that before. I think this relates to Monster, because the jury thought about the case from a different perspective, much like me, and decided to reach the verdict of Steve Harmon "not guilty." Overall, the novel and movies were very interesting, and I think they should be showed to anyone who believes racism is not prevalent in society today.
I really liked these videos as well. I think that the young children from A Class Divided really learned a lesson on race and that it actually was successful since it showed that it stuck with them throughout their lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that race is really a pointless concept and I think it's crazy how something so pointless can have such a powerful meaning to people in society.
in the class divided video, i agree when you said it helped the kids relate to how racism is prevalent in society. I think it was a really good idea for the teacher to do that, even though it was risky. It taught the kids of the class a moral lesson that they still believed in whenever they were adults. Also i didn't think of the idea that the jury saw the trial in a different perspective, and thats how they reached Steve's verdict.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you that racism is pointless. It's incredible that something so insignificant influences people opinions in things as important as jail time. Someone's entire life could be taken because the jury couldn't shake their stereotypes. Luckily for Steve Harmon that didn't happen.
ReplyDeleteHow easy is it for us to shake our stereotypes? Especially when the media is determined to perpetuate them? As a result, is it true that young, black men (or Mexican, Asian, Muslim, etc.) are "finished" before they even have a chance to "begin?"
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