Racism: What It Is and How to Deal with It - Uned

Module 5. Racism: How can we deal with it? | 131
4 Food For Thought
Reflection is turning thought back on itself in a conscious way. It involves a certain
unfolding of the I or conscience. Arendt gives a fundamental role to thought in
preventing evil. For her, preventing great evil comes through exercising reason (Arendt,
H., 1999). Reflection involves a dialogue with ourselves, with what we like and what we
don’t like, a positioning, the acquisition of one’s own criteria according to the
information we have.
We can carry out the exercise of reflection individually, working with our own ideas, or
in a group. Here, communication is presented as a very important element in the
process of reflection. Talking, exchanging opinions and points of view with others
always contributes new, enriching elements to our thinking.
The object of our reflection can be varied but, for example, we could reflect on the
school curriculum, what its objectives are, if we really think that it attends to the
diversity we may find in the classroom, how it conditions us, and how we can distance
ourselves from these conditioning factors. We can reflect on how identities originate,
what they are; on our own behavior in everyday situations in which our condition at that
moment, as father/mother, teacher, company director, or soccer referee puts us in a
privileged situation with respect to the other and we use this privilege for imposing our
criterion, subjecting the other. Similarly, we will identify situations in which we have felt
ourselves to be victims of an action carried out by others because they have placed
themselves in a situation of privilege with regard to work, socially, and economically,
with respect to us.