Sneetches, Prejudice, Discrimination, and Status

Dr. Seuss gave us many classics in regards to human behavior. My personal favorite is "Sneetches," a story about two kinds of Sneetches, creatures who lived on the beach, some of whom had stars on their bellies, some who did not.

Those with stars fancied themselves better than the others and excluded those without stars from their social gatherings. Those with stars also had stereotypes about those without. This led to discrimination, name calling, and social shunning. Along comes an inventor who can put stars on those without. Conflict ensues when the originals with stars feel the need to change once all Sneetches had stars--they needed some visible identifier for in- and out-group labeling.

Then the inventor who took the stars off the original star-bellied Sneetches.  They reclassified the status of both kinds of bellies.

This new designation leads to chaos as both groups end up adding and subtracting the stars so that everything gets messed up from the original grouping.  No identifiers work for in- and out-group designations.

Lessons are learned and the scam artist leaves.

The video version is available here:



Posted by Chuck Schallhorn

The Teaching High School Sociology web site

The Crayola Monologues: A Commentary on Color and Society

I found this as a video file that I received from Amy Jones at a conference a few years ago. I am still sifting through all the amazing resources she shared.

This video is called, "The Crayola Monologues."  It is sharable for all ages, but especially great for social psychology and prejudice/bigotry issues.  To be honest, I love this video.  The artist who created it can be found at this link: http://www.nathangibbs.com/crayola-monologues/.  This page contains lengthy commentary and exploration of color, race, and ethnicities and issues surrounding these ideas in our society.



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

The Teaching High School Sociology web site

The Hunger Games and Racism

I've not read The Hunger Games series, but the premise sounds interesting to me.  However, what really got to me was this article from jezebel.com about the seeming racism of the movie's fans.  I guess I really should not be surprised, but something similar happened with the second and third Matrix movies when most of the supporting characters were cast as people of color.

This is a great read for dissection with your students.

Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed

Addendum:
After the initial post, I found the following links to this issue:

Here are a couple links to follow up to the initial reactions.  Seems like some ripe fodder for a sociology discussion:
http://jezebel.com/5896688/i-see-white-people-hunger-games-and-a-brief-history-of-cultural-whitewashing 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/03/27/racist-reaction-to-the-hunger-games-reminds-us-that-free-speech-is-a-good-thing/

http://jezebel.com/5896515/a-character+by+character-guide-to-race-in-the-hunger-games

The Teaching High School Sociology web site

Survival in America if You Are Young and Black

I read this in Time magazine and then found the online version.  I just find this reality so disturbing.

"How to Talk to Young Black Boys About Trayvon Martin"

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/03/21/how-to-talk-to-young-black-boys-about-trayvon-martin/#ixzz1q9KqqE75
Students who are white need to learn that this is a reality for people of color.  It is not just something that occurred in the history books, sometime in the distant past.  This is people's reality now.  My student population is 60% Latino.  They face similar issues.  We must do what we can to reduce/remove this reality from our world.

Teaching High School Sociology Website

Unintentional Racism in Article About Intentional Racism--Geeesh

A good friend of mine pointed out the following article.  At the time it was written, there was a glaring error that has since been corrected.  Fortunately, I was able to get screen caps before they corrected it.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/southern-miss-band-chants-where-green-card-puerto-205326741.html

Wow.  They go to all those pains to make the change on the correct spelling of the guy's name, and then put the wrong name--I guess for some people, all Latino names are the same.

Check out the screen caps below.  "Credit" to Yahoo Sports for the story.