Diversity Diversity

Denise Williams came during class this week and she was great! I went to her diversity session one Friday about a month or so ago. I was excited to hear that I would get to experience it again. We watched the video, "N*gger W*tback Ch*nk" (I think that is how you spell it) and it really is a funny video about stereotypes about asians, African Americans, and hispanics. Denise asked the question, "why do we all get the joke?" We all the get the joke because in this country, we care more about money and advertising and being better than everyone else. Money should not be the most important thing in the world but people use stereotypes to advertise and they make money off of it. Every commercial is filled with ten commercials and sometimes there are more commercials and advertisements than there is the actual show. Some tv shows have a lot of stereotyping in them. Everyone sees commercials and billboards that word gets around and soon everyone thinks this advertised statement is true but it is only a stereotype. It is shared among friends of friends of friends and becomes wide spread! Denise also brought up a good point about stereotyping and how to somewhat overcome it and if people could do this, we could get past all of the stereotyping.

Whenever I meet someone or see someone walking by, I am always stereotyping people. Everyone does it unconsciously and some are worse at it than others. I am going to work hard on not stereotyping people and when I do stereotype someone I am going to ask myself "why did I think that?"I think being able to ask myself this question is going to help me be a better peer mentor. If I am able to not stereotype someone at first glance then I will be able to be a better person and a better teacher that will not show a hint of resistance if my stereotyping is negative. I will also be able to have a better experience and let my mentees have a better experience because I will be more relaxed and open.