Culture,
Privilege and
Racism
Kiddie Klan Photo
Culture, Race, Ethnicity
• Culture: A set of beliefs, attitudes and values held in
common by a large number of people and passed
down from one generation to the next.
• Race: A set of hereditary and physical
characteristics that distinguishes a major group of
people.
• Ethnic Group: A collection of people distinguished,
by others or by themselves, primarily on the basis of
cultural or nationality characteristics.
Note: On Race
• Recent scientific evidence suggests that the idea of
race is a biological myth, as outdated as the widely
held medieval belief that the sun revolved around
the earth!
• Anthropologists, biologists and geneticists have
increasingly found that, biologically speaking; there
is no such thing as "race."
• Modern science is decoding the genetic puzzle of
DNA and human variation - and finding that skin
color really is only skin deep.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnfKgffCZ7U
Note: On Race
• Race does not relate to mental characteristics such
as intelligence, personality or character
• Racial categorization based on phonotypical
differences (such as facial characteristics or skin
colour) does not correlate with genotypical
differences (differences in genetic make-up).
• All human groups belong to the same species
(Homosapiens).
Note: On Race
• Most of us have more in common genetically with
individuals from another “race” than we have with
the genetic average of people from our own
“race”!
Race Redefined
• Race: A category of people who have been
singled out as inferior or superior, often on the basis
of real or alleged physical characteristics, such as
skin colour, hair texture, eye shape, or other
subjectively selected attributes.
• (Race: A set of hereditary and physical
characteristics that distinguishes a major group of
people).
The Significance of Race
and Ethnicity
• How important are race and ethnicity in Canada?
- It is easy to suggest that race is insignificant of one is
not a member of a racial minority. But, whether we
like it or not, “race” does matter.
- Race and ethnicity take on great social
significance… in regards to opportunities,
treatment, even lifespan…
- It matters because it provides privilege and power
to some
Privilege
Being able to…
• assume that most of the people you or your
children study in history classes and textbooks will
be of the same race, gender, or sexual orientation
as you are
• assume that your failures will not be attributed to
your race, or your gender
• not have to think about your race, or your gender,
or your sexual orientation, or disabilities, on a daily
basis..
Majority and Minority
Groups
• Majority: (dominant) group is one that is
advantaged and has superior resources and rights
in society
• Minority: (subordinate) group is one whose
members, because of physical or cultural
characteristics, are disadvantaged and subjected
to unequal treatment by the dominant group
• Prejudice: A biased judgment based on preconceived notions
about members of selected groups (“before” “judgment”).
Can be positive or negative
• Stereotypes: Overgeneralizations about the appearance,
behaviour, or other characteristics of members of a particular
group (“solid” fixed mental impression).
• Discrimination: Mistreatment or denial of rights based on group
membership.
• Racism: a belief that one race is superior to the other. or the
practice of treating a person or group of people differently on
the basis of their “race”.
Activity
• What is in a label?
• A labeling exercise to help students learn about how
stereotypes work!
• You will get a RANDOM label to put on your forehead (or
back) so that the label is not visible to the wearer.
• NOTE: These labels are being assigned randomly and
have nothing to do with students' actual attributes!
• Students will spend 15 minutes talking with each other
about "future goals"
• Circulate in order to talk with several different people,
and treat one another according to the other person's
labeled attribute.
For example, someone labeled "forgetful" might be
repeatedly reminded of the instructions….
Debrief
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Share how you felt during the exercise?
How were you treated by others?
How did this treatment affected you?
Was the label what you guessed, or were you
surprised by it?
When people stereotyped you, were you able to
disregard it?
How did you feel toward the person who was
stereotyping you?
If your attribute was positive how did you feel?
If your attribute was negative how did you feel?
Some of the labels…
• violent, athletic, cute, overemotional, incompetent,
good at math, lazy, untrustworthy, unclean,
musical, materialistic, diseased, unintelligent, exotic,
forgetful, frail, talented, super smart, clumsy,
pushover, pushy, highly creative, careless,
procrastinator, perfectionist, shy
Goal
• To demonstrate how stereotypes affect the selfperception and behavior of the person who is
stereotyped.
An Experiment on
Discrimination
A Class Divided
• On the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was
murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott's third graders
from the small, all-white town of Riceville, Iowa,
came to class confused and upset.
• They recently had made King their "Hero of the
Month," and they couldn't understand why
someone would kill him.
• Elliott decided to teach her class a daring lesson in
the meaning of discrimination. She wanted to show
her pupils what discrimination really feels like, and
what it can do to people….
• Elliott divided her class by eye color -- those with
blue eyes and those with brown.
• On the first day, the blue-eyed children were told
they were smarter, nicer, neater, and better than
those with brown eyes. Throughout the day, Elliott
praised them and allowed them privileges such as a
taking a longer recess and being first in the lunch
line.
• In contrast, the brown-eyed children had to wear
collars around their necks and their behavior and
performance were criticized and ridiculed by Elliott.
• On the second day, the roles were reversed and
the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior
while the brown eyes were designated the
dominant group
• What happened over the course of the unique twoday exercise astonished both students and teacher.
• On both days, children who were designated as
inferior took on the look and behavior of genuinely
inferior students, performing poorly on tests and
other work.
• In contrast, the "superior" students -- students who
had been sweet and tolerant before the exercise -became mean-spirited and seemed to like
discriminating against the "inferior" group.
• "I watched what had been marvelous, cooperative,
wonderful, thoughtful children turn into nasty,
vicious, discriminating little third-graders in a space
of fifteen minutes," says Elliott.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0qK
Diq1fNw
Think that only children
play into this?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NHeFgaVWs8
The Sneetches
The Sneetches
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdLPe7XjdKc
• Labelling
• Discrimination
• Stereotypes
• Prejudice
Class Discussion
Questions
• A Class Divided Questions (Handout)
• Page 600 Case Study
Note: You are NOT this sad panda