We start off this week by watching a student documentary called "I Sit Where I Want". I was not really moved by the film, but I think it showed a lot of cool points about racism, teenagers, and willingness to change the familiar. I think the film showed that white kids are pretty stuck between a place where they feel like they are inferior because of how society treats them, and then also in between a place where if they do something how will their friends respond or think of them differently?
Then, we read an article titled, "If I was a Poor Black Boy". This article had much more meaning for me because I really agree with what the author had to say about inner city children basically making their own success in life, and how being black and poor is no excuse really nowadays for failure/crime, etc. I have never gone to an inner city school, and I was born white, so I can't really argue this so much, but I can say that it is a hopeful approach to give children the means necessary to levelthe educational playing field out a little more. The student's drive is sometimes what is necessarily the factor to take them far in life.
After taking the Racial IAT, I still don't have a lot of new viewpoints about bias. I did have some hidden bias, because my data suggested that I had a "Strong automatic preference for European American compared to African American" people. I think that some of the reasons behind my test was that I get confused very easily on the tests where things are mixed up from the previous givens. I know this is not the best answer, but I honestly believe that my brain holds onto things that it has learned first. In the FAQ, it explained that I have a strong preference because it reflects the strength of the implicit preference, meaning how fast I responded to the European Americans versus African Americans.
Even after reading the page on the website my mind is still not changed about the results I got. I do believe that stereotypes are a distorted truth about a group or a person, and that stereotypes are based on images in mass media or reputations passed on by close ones aound us. I think that many of us have positive and negative stereotypes,but we also have negative and positive thoughts about anything in the world, not just people. I do believe that hidden biases dictate actual behavior because they reveal themselves under stress, distraction, competition or relaxation. I find it hard to believe that in some classrooms with white and black students, the black students are receiving different educations. How can this be? Also, I think that prejudice is such a sad thing but very apparent in our society. They are made by ignorance and there are a lot of ignorant people out there.
Overall, this has been a pretty exciting topic because it is very relatable. Not like, hazing in college, where none of us high schoolers have ever experienced hazing in college. I like being able to share real experiences in class and not just a story we heard from a stranger.
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