Black people are not monkeys. It's incredibly racist and wrong to say that they are or to compare them to monkeys. This is common sense, right?
Well, apparently some of the boys in my physics class don't have common sense. Or basic human decency, for that matter.
We were talking about what would happen if you shot a banana out of a cannon and how it might be possible for a monkey to catch it. And then we simulated it in real life, using a Beanie Babies monkey attached magnetically to the ceiling via a screw in its head, an electron wire, an air cannon, and a marble.
Our only problem was, somebody needed to be tall enough to actually reach the ceiling so they could attach the toy to the magnet. The two tallest people in the room were both boys, one white and one black.
And of course, this fact seemed to give the white boys in class an excuse to be racist turds (not all of them, but some) without consequence. You can guess what happened.
I hate when people are like this. What happened today sucked and should never, ever be allowed, but it did and it was. And, like the rest of the non-racist part of the class, I have no idea what to do about it. I've seen examples of prejudice, both systemic and in the form of "individual acts of meanness", at my school on a regular basis, but I've never known how to respond - even if the prejudice is directed at a group that I'm part of.
And when the prejudice is directed at a group that I'm not part of, I'm frozen. So, because some jokes are really not funny, I want to do something about it. Any ideas? What would you have done?
Well, apparently some of the boys in my physics class don't have common sense. Or basic human decency, for that matter.
We were talking about what would happen if you shot a banana out of a cannon and how it might be possible for a monkey to catch it. And then we simulated it in real life, using a Beanie Babies monkey attached magnetically to the ceiling via a screw in its head, an electron wire, an air cannon, and a marble.
Our only problem was, somebody needed to be tall enough to actually reach the ceiling so they could attach the toy to the magnet. The two tallest people in the room were both boys, one white and one black.
And of course, this fact seemed to give the white boys in class an excuse to be racist turds (not all of them, but some) without consequence. You can guess what happened.
I hate when people are like this. What happened today sucked and should never, ever be allowed, but it did and it was. And, like the rest of the non-racist part of the class, I have no idea what to do about it. I've seen examples of prejudice, both systemic and in the form of "individual acts of meanness", at my school on a regular basis, but I've never known how to respond - even if the prejudice is directed at a group that I'm part of.
And when the prejudice is directed at a group that I'm not part of, I'm frozen. So, because some jokes are really not funny, I want to do something about it. Any ideas? What would you have done?
6 comments:
Racism is a terrible and dangerous thing. Some people really have, as you stated, no basic human deceny.
Well, I know what 'my' punks do with racists - they beat them up.
But this is certainly not the best method against racism.
What I always find at least a bit helpful is to turn their jokes against them. Did you know that male gibbons (of a certain race) are black while the females are white? Most racists don´t like to be compared with the 'weak gender'. Of course, this not always helps. Bu almost always, the only way of making the racists shut up is to confront them with jokes as bad as theirs. Jokes that make them feel ambarassed. Things like this. But I know how hard it is to think of omething like this in a situation when you are completely shocked...
The gibbon thing just might work. The leader of the turds is also really sexist. And ableist. And homophobic. And just generally an all-around turd. So to have a queer, disabled girl call him out on his racism...oh, that'll just be precious. I bet his face will turn purple xD
I hope it will!
Don´t take it personally, but I really do HATE the word "disabled". It gives the image of a person not able to live on his/her own due to physical problems... Nothing on people who use it and are fine with it, but well, I get mad when people call my boyfriend disabled and anyway, it´s a word I simply dislike.
Just had to say this, sorry.
I feel the same way - I have self-diagnosed autism and formally diagnosed AD/HD. I would honestly prefer different language to be used in society, such as the right to refer to myself as 'diffabled' and to have people not refer to my autism as an illness but as a disorder, a term which I find more empowering and accurate. I also dislike Autism Speaks for the rampant ableism they promote, such as showing videos of parents saying they wished their autistic kids were dead or talking about autism as something that robs those affected by it of their personalities, as something that takes away the 'real' person inside. I've also heard that they refuse to allow actual autistic people on their board of directors, which violates one of the core tenets of the "disability" pride movement: nothing about us without us. How can anyone accurately run an organization for a minority group without actually listening to the voices and empowering those in said minority group? I also passionately hate the word 'retarded', no matter who it's referring to or in what context.
Oh yes, 'retard' is also terrible. I do not hear it often, but a friend of mine works in a home for mentally handicapped people and he really freaks out when he hears it, even more than me with the word 'disabled' or 'krippled' for wheelchair-drivers etc...
Human can be so cruel to each other.
In the US, teenagers basically use that word as a synonym for "stupid". I hear it about five hundred times in the thirty hours a week that I'm at school and it's so insulting because not only is 'retard' a term that has been used to oppress me, but it's degrading to an entire minority group that includes some truly amazing people...and these ridiculous neurotypicals are totally ignoring that and using oppressive, offensive language because they apparently don't have the vocabulary for better word choices. It's like it doesn't even occur to some people that WORDS FREAKING MEAN THINGS.
Post a Comment