a black guy i used to work with took a local van hire firm to court and won. he'd walked in to hire a van and was told there were none available. getting the feeling it was down to the colour of his skin he asked a white friend to go in straight afterward to ask for one. the white guy got it. dunno what the 'compensation' or whatever was but doing it for the principle was enough. this was only a couple of years ago in Darlington, County Durham.
I like that!!
A proactive and legal response....
I just hope that the day trippers (London to Brighton - May 08) get the same kind of justice!
To prove a point to my administration that we have a serious issue with racism and prejudice on our staff... I started with the "campus aides" both of whom emphatically deny that they are racist or treat the kids with any bias... (Of course!)...
Here is the "experiment" I conducted...
It was a day when we were having a double period assembly in the gym. We have a student dress code policy that does not allow students to wear bandannas of any color but esp Red/Blue as they are considered "gang" colors. Now, as you might imagine, due to the nature of 'gangs' being perceived as predominantly made up of people of color (in our case, Latino and Black students), very often I was hearing complaints that white students were not being stopped when they were wearing "colors" as often as our Black and Latino students...
So... I decided to put this to the test...remember, I teach a class on social justice and race.. so it was a perfect social experiment. The kids were totally into it. I gave a two bandannas (red) to two different students. One student, a well known white student from the hills (the affluent neighborhood in our attendance area) and one student, a black student from our middle class/working class neighborhood. They BOTH wore the bandannas UNDER their hats in an identical fashion. We did this two times. With two different sets of students.
I will let you all guess which students were the ones who were stopped, had the bandannas confiscated and then were reprimanded... DING DING DING DING DING!!!! THe students of color.
As a class, we then debriefed the next day on what all of the contributing factors and variables were in the process... Giving the campus aides and administrators as MUCH of the benefit of the doubt as we could... and in both circumstances, the evidence was irrefutable. Students of color were targeted while white students weren't...
The students then discussed a plan of action. They invited the campus aides and administrators to our class to discuss what happened. They declined, but did agree to meet privately with some of the students involved (White PRIVILEGE at it's best!!). So the students, myself, and the administration sat and had a very difficult conversation. I have never been more proud of my students than on that day!
__________________
There are no words in the English language to capture my feelings...
I gotta tell you, I am a little tired of people telling me what I see and what I must see and all the inuendo crap that goes with it.
I see him as a man............the best political candidate at this point in time.....End of MY story on him.
You are entitled to see and think whatever you like. I will not harrass you on that. Just remember to return the favor.
I admit haven't finished reading the thread JG but your response here made me stop and say.... sometimes you need to recognise that you are not being hounded by innuendo...
People are merely expressing opinions and because you feel you've been slighted in the past, IMO you tend to tread a very carefully selected fine line toward political correctness...
MissB was merely strong open honest and assertive enough to step up and actually tell the truth... no need to be quite so defensive....
maybe its less about seeing it but more about how important it is to you as an individual. in the case of obama if i was american i would care more about his policies and if hes gonna fix the mess bush has made of the world in terms of war and economy. personally i think it would have been nice to have both the first black man or the first woman as president. but more importantly bushes administration had to get out.
margaret thatcher is a perfect example of how voting for someone on the basis other than their policies is a recipe for disaster.
Mags had some good policies!!!
Certainly allowed me to get on the property market!! OK - so its all caving in now... but honestly, staunch Labour supporter that I am - she was good for the time!!
Love that example of good practice Miss B and excellent that it created the opportuninty for some sort of debate. Reminds me of the Blue eyed Brown eyed experiment.
Love that example of good practice Miss B and excellent that it created the opportuninty for some sort of debate. Reminds me of the Blue eyed Brown eyed experiment.
Yes!!! We watch that as well at the beginning of the school year ... IF I could get away with that kind of experiment I would... lol....
__________________
There are no words in the English language to capture my feelings...
I agree... we should all speak our minds... but perhaps we need to try being a little more selective about when/where/how we choose to do so...
Thats a level of censorship I can't agree with MissB
I understand WHY you said it - but then we end up not being true to ourselves and indeed the problems of racism, sexism, ageism etc etc etc continue to infiltrate and poison society because people are afraid of open discussion.... fearful of slipping masks....
One of my favourite quote in relation to freedom of speech states:
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. ~Noam Chomsk"
I did it once with adults on a diversity training day, world war three nearly broke out, we put them through it for a whole morning and when lunch time came and blue eyes saw what they had in comparison to brown, well you can imagine!......the funny thing is we thought they would have caught on to the plan, but they didnt they ran with it.........needless to say the afternoon debates were deep, has to be one of the most effective training sessions I have ever ran.
Thats a level of censorship I can't agree with MissB
I understand WHY you said it - but then we end up not being true to ourselves and indeed the problems of racism, sexism, ageism etc etc etc continue to infiltrate and poison society because people are afraid of open discussion.... fearful of slipping masks....
One of my favourite quote in relation to freedom of speech states:
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. ~Noam Chomsk"
I dont call that example censorship, I call it emotional inteligence, something I try to exercise daily (some days better than others) in various aspects of life, and I teach the young people that I come into contact with to do exactly what Miss B suggests, think what you say, how you say it and when you say it.
To prove a point to my administration that we have a serious issue with racism and prejudice on our staff... I started with the "campus aides" both of whom emphatically deny that they are racist or treat the kids with any bias... (Of course!)...
Here is the "experiment" I conducted...
It was a day when we were having a double period assembly in the gym. We have a student dress code policy that does not allow students to wear bandannas of any color but esp Red/Blue as they are considered "gang" colors. Now, as you might imagine, due to the nature of 'gangs' being perceived as predominantly made up of people of color (in our case, Latino and Black students), very often I was hearing complaints that white students were not being stopped when they were wearing "colors" as often as our Black and Latino students...
So... I decided to put this to the test...remember, I teach a class on social justice and race.. so it was a perfect social experiment. The kids were totally into it. I gave a two bandannas (red) to two different students. One student, a well known white student from the hills (the affluent neighborhood in our attendance area) and one student, a black student from our middle class/working class neighborhood. They BOTH wore the bandannas UNDER their hats in an identical fashion. We did this two times. With two different sets of students.
I will let you all guess which students were the ones who were stopped, had the bandannas confiscated and then were reprimanded... DING DING DING DING DING!!!! THe students of color.
As a class, we then debriefed the next day on what all of the contributing factors and variables were in the process... Giving the campus aides and administrators as MUCH of the benefit of the doubt as we could... and in both circumstances, the evidence was irrefutable. Students of color were targeted while white students weren't...
The students then discussed a plan of action. They invited the campus aides and administrators to our class to discuss what happened. They declined, but did agree to meet privately with some of the students involved (White PRIVILEGE at it's best!!). So the students, myself, and the administration sat and had a very difficult conversation. I have never been more proud of my students than on that day!
In the face of the evidence of discrimination MissB, what's changed since then????
Has there been an active attempt to change??
Or have those who have been shown the evidence found an alternate way to continue their actions???
I dont call that example censorship, I call it emotional inteligence, something I try to exercise daily (some days better than others) in various aspects of life, and I teach the young people that I come into contact with to do exactly what Miss B suggests, think what you say, how you say it and when you say it.
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