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

A Guide to Talking about Racism | 138
5 Activities to Share
Activity 1. Helping to take stereotypes apart
We will now study some cases. Looking at the following quotes from interviews 42 ,
detect positive and negative messages that the people in your classroom or your
school share.
My mother’s boss told me to use something in order to be white. She said to me,
“And why don’t you use a cream?” I got angry, of course. I told her no, because I
like being this color, and that’s all there is to it.
Why do you like meeting new people?
- To see different ideas. I don’t like to stick to one kind of people. I like to meet
people, and then when I know lots of different kinds of ideas of what people think,
well, then I adapt to the one I like the best.
I think that racism is often a lack of knowledge, and it’s fear. So, when they see
different behavior, different cultures, at first, I think that, simply because of a lack of
knowledge, lots of people can feel a kind of rejection. Maybe if you think about it a
little more calmly... Lots of times I think that that..., that tranquillity, afterwards, of
thinking, it just isn’t there; you just stick with the first rejection and that’s it: “I don’t
like it because it doesn’t coincide with what I’m used to seeing.” But maybe, if you
actually analyze it, well, you realize that maybe your way of life, your ways of
thinking, your schemes, are as different for the other person as theirs are for you.
But the rejection often arises from a lack of knowledge and from fear, I think.
(Interview with a teacher and head of studies, Madrid)
Can girls do anything?
- They have less physical strength, but that’s all.
- Almost the same, a woman can do lots of things well in a job, and men, no, and
men can do things well in a job, and women, no.
42 Opinions gathered for the project Racism: A Teenagers’ Perspective
http://www.aulaintercultural.org/article.php3?id_article=1491