{"id":186,"date":"2012-05-29T15:21:46","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T15:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/2012\/05\/29\/sht-students-say-about-racism\/"},"modified":"2012-05-29T15:21:46","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T15:21:46","slug":"sht-students-say-about-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/2012\/05\/29\/sht-students-say-about-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Sh*t Students Say About Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sociologyinfocus.com\/2012\/05\/29\/stuff-students-say-about-racism\/\">Find a discussion of todays article written for a student audience by yours truly over at SociologyInFocus.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Maybe it\u2019s the Just World Hypothesis or maybe it\u2019s the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sociologysource.com\/home\/2010\/4\/30\/the-dichotomization-of-racism.html\">dichotomization of racism<\/a>, but for whatever reason, students are quick to claim they\u2019ve been cured of racism.<a href=\"1\" id=\"fnref:1\" title=\"see footnote\" class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/a> Racism, it would appear, is a big problem\u2026 for other people. Or older generations. Or other parts of the country (like in the South). According to many students, racism is a problem, to be sure, but it\u2019s not a problem for them.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve talked at length here at SociologySource about the need to teach our students that racism is more than overt hateful acts committed by ultra bigots. Racism (and all prejudice and discrimination for that matter) need to be conceptualized as problems \u201cgood, moral, and honest\u201d people have. Furthermore, when we conceptualize all prejudice and discrimination as being big events carried out by mean people, we marginalize the day-to-day experiences of socially non-dominant peoples. <\/p>\n<p>The concept of microaggressions helps my students understand the more everyday side of racism. Microaggressions are defined by Sol\u00f3rzano et al. (2002) as, \u201csubtle verbal and non-verbal insults directed at non-whites, often done automatically or unconsciously\u201d (Pp. 17)<a href=\"2\" id=\"fnref:2\" title=\"see footnote\" class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/a>. This conceptual framework also does a great job of separating the intent of an action from the impact that action has. <\/p>\n<p>Franchesca Ramsey\u2019s Sh*t White Girls Say About Black Girls is one of the best illustrations of the microaggressions concept<a href=\"3\" id=\"fnref:3\" title=\"see footnote\" class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/a>. Ramsey satirizes white microaggressions in a way that is both painfully funny and painfully honest.<a href=\"4\" id=\"fnref:4\" title=\"see footnote\" class=\"footnote\">[4]<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ylPUzxpIBe0?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When this video came out it quickly went viral and then was parodied by a number of white actors who thought it was racist to point the finger at white women. The article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clutchmagonline.com\/2012\/01\/not-everyones-laughing-at-shit-white-girls-say-to-black-girls\/\">\u201cNot Everyone\u2019s Laughing At \u2018Sh*t White Girls Say To Black Girls\u2019\u201d<\/a> by Tami Winfrey Harris at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clutchmagonline.com\/author\/tami-winfrey-harris\/\">Clutch<\/a> magazine does a fantastic job of reporting the backlash and critiquing the false equivalence of microaggressions targeted toward whites. Winfrey Harris uses microaggressions to analyze both Ramsey\u2019s video and the backlash to it in her article and draws attention to the blog <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microaggressions.com\/\">Microaggressions.com<\/a>. This is a fantastic site of user submitted stories of microaggressions they have experienced in their everyday lives.<\/p>\n<p>Pairing Ramsey\u2019s video, Winfrey Harris\u2019s article, and Microaggressions.com seemed like too potent a pedagogical opportunity to not use in my classes. I put together a quick written assignment for students to do before coming to class that will hopefully start a vibrant discussion on racism and microaggressions (Download it <a href=\"http:\/\/sociologysource.squarespace.com\/storage\/materials\/Microaggressions.doc\">Word<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/sociologysource.squarespace.com\/storage\/materials\/Microaggressions.pdf\">pdf<\/a>). Unlike most of the things I post here at SociologySource, I haven\u2019t tried this one yet, but I plan to this fall.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve taught microaggressions before or if you have any suggestions\/additions to this project hit me up on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/sociologysource\/\">@SociologySource<\/a>, on our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Sociology-Source\/154298964616356\">Facebook page<\/a>, or email me at Nathan @ SociologySource . Com.<\/p>\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr \/>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p>To be clear, I do mean all students. While white students have been, in my experience, more likely to celebrate the end of racism, I have found that students of all racial ethnic groups espouse that same idea. Some students only argue that they are cured of racism and others argue that racism is no longer a real social problem. <a href=\"1\" title=\"return to article\" class=\"reversefootnote\">&#160;\u21a9<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Sol\u00f3rzano, Daniel G. and Delgado Bernal, Dolores 2001 \u2018Examining<br \/>\ntransformational resistance through a Critical Race and LatCrit Theory Framework: Chicana and Chicano students in an urban context\u2019, <em>Urban Education<\/em>, vol. 36, no. 3. pp. 308\u201342 <a href=\"2\" title=\"return to article\" class=\"reversefootnote\">&#160;\u21a9<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The video is fantastic, but it\u2019s not for everyone\u2019s teaching style. I would also be more inclined to show it to an upper level or graduate level class. If you are going to show it to an intro to sociology class, I would highly recommend a large amount of time for class discussion and decompression.  <a href=\"3\" title=\"return to article\" class=\"reversefootnote\">&#160;\u21a9<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Do keep in mind that I am neither Black nor a woman, but I have heard something similar to most of the statements Ramsey makes. The video rings true to me. Just saying. <a href=\"4\" title=\"return to article\" class=\"reversefootnote\">&#160;\u21a9<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Find a discussion of todays article written for a student audience by yours truly over at SociologyInFocus.com Maybe it\u2019s the Just World Hypothesis or maybe it\u2019s the dichotomization of racism, but for whatever reason, students are quick to claim they\u2019ve been cured of racism.[1] Racism, it would appear, is a big problem\u2026 for other people. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1982,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[285,30594],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-raceethnicity","category-videos-for-class"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1982"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/sociologysource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}