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TEACHING ABOUT BIAS INCIDENTS
When a bias incident happens in the school or in the local or national community, use it as a teachable moment. Strive to:
1. Create opportunities for student reflection about what has happened.
2. Speak publicly against injustice. Ask students to prepare comments for use in public address announcements, school television broadcasts, written notices or the school newspaper. For example: "Most of you have probably heard about the prosecution of black youths in Louisiana known as the 'Jena 6.' The whole thing started with a conflict on campus between white and black students. Let's use this terrible incident to remind ourselves to show respect to everyone around us."
3. Ask students to create a game plan about how they can keep the incident from happening at their school — or again at their school.
4. Participate in healing. Create ways for students to reach out to those victimized by bias within the school, and extend support to targets in the community through letters. If no address is available, send them in care of the local newspaper.
The following resources can be used in the wake of a bias incident — or in an effort to prevent incidents from occurring on your campus.
LESSONS ON LANGUAGE
Language -- slurs, epithets and phrases like "That's so ghetto" -- often lie at the heart of bias incidents. School leaders should send a clear message that hate speech has no place on campus. (See our Model Statement for Addressing Widespread Biased Speech.)
Equally important is bringing the issue into the classroom so that students are empowered to make more informed choices about their use of particular words and phrases:
The Power of Words
From an activity exploring the roots of slang for immigrants to a lesson on recent attempts by marginalized groups to reclaim pejorative words, this curriculum's 10 lesson plans support content standards in language arts, history, civics and behavioral studies for grades 9-12. Many of the activities can be adapted for lower grades and across subject areas.
The Ladder of Prejudice
Middle grades educator Stefani Fox created this lesson to help her students understand how speech can give rise to discrimination and violence.
Early Grades Allies
Educator and author Mara Sapon-Shevin offers strategies and ideas to help students in grades 4-6 become allies -- people who stand with or for others.
Speak Up: Responding to Everyday Bigotry
This guidebook provides practical strategies for interrupting bigoted comments at school, at home and in the community. It includes a 50-minute training module, easily adaptable for classroom or club use.
No Name-Calling Week
Sponsored each January by a coalition of organizations including Teaching Tolerance, No Name-Calling Week is a perfect opportunity to focus on eradicating the use of biased language at school.
LOOKING AT SYMBOLS
Sometimes the symbols involved in bias incidents are obvious — hate symbols like swastikas or, as in Jena, the use of nooses, which connote racist lynchings.
In other situations, however, symbols may have culturally specific meanings that vary between groups:
:: The Confederate Battle Flag is sometimes evoked by Southern whites as a symbol of Southern pride. For many African Americans, however, the flag is a racist symbol.
:: The Celtic Cross, often worn by Christians, particularly those of Irish descent, and popular with skateboarders (it's the logo of the Independent Truck Co., which makes skate gear and clothing), has been adopted by many white supremacist groups as a symbol of white pride. For this reason, the Celtic Cross can sometimes be seen as a symbol of racism, rather than religious pride.
In situations like these, help students explore and mediate the tension between intention and perception (PDF).
Contact us for permission to reprint these materials. Please reference the title and the name and location of your school/organization in your request.
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