Unit 7

De-escalation 3: Overcoming Stereotypes

Goals:

The students will…

• Become aware of the assumptions they make about other people without realizing it, in order to keep from doing it in the future.
• Feel pride in what makes them unique, such as ethnicity, race, interests, talents, or cultural background.
• Define the word “stereotype”.
• Realize that stereotyping is often hurtful.
• Realize that some generalizations can be good and helpful but that successful people realize the stereotypes they have and don’t apply them in every situation.
• Realize that sometimes when people are labeled, they start to act like that label.
• Learn how to overcome stereotypes by communicating: getting to know the other person by talking about what makes you different (point about spiders, below).
• Similarly, learn that to communicate well, a person need to overcome their pre-assumptions (prejudices).
• Discuss that prejudice is “pre-judge”.
• Understand the relationship between stereotypes and conflict.
• Discuss the relationship between stereotypes and prejudice and racism, realizing that racism is an example of stereotype and prejudice.

• Show that racism is everyone’s problem.
• Show that even young people can have a big impact on racism.
• Accomplish the personal goal for your classroom for today:________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

The volunteers will…

• Learn how to deal with stereotypes in their own lives.
• Gain a better understanding of racism by moderating the discussion.

Materials:

• Cards for the Stereotypin’ Game.
• Copies of the Bob Dylan Song, “Hurricane.”

Methods:

I. Opening Activity: False Assumptions: Doctor Riddle (3 minutes)

II. Celebrate Difference and Define Stereotypes: Stand Up/Sit Down Game (10 minutes)

III. Get Stereotyped: The Stereotypin’ Game (15 minutes)

IV. Stereotypes Don’t Apply to Everyone: Stand-up Game (15 minutes)

V. Racism Discussion/Racism is Everyone’s Problem: The Hurricane (25 minutes)

VI. Closing Activity: Summary (5 minutes)

Preparation:

• One week in advance: Get permission from classroom teacher to have racism discussion.
• Make Stereotypin’ cards.
• Make enough copies of “The Hurricane” for the entire class.
• Understand stereotypes and prejudices, and think about how and why they are formed.

I. Opening Activity: False Assumptions: Doctor Riddle

(estimated time: 3 minutes)

Volunteer Leading this activity _________________________________________

Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________

Activity Goals:

• Show that we tend to make assumptions about people that aren’t always true.

Begin the lesson by telling the students this riddle. Before giving them the answer right away, have them brainstorm some possible solutions. If one student offers up the answer right away, ask for a show of hands of who did not think of this possibility immediately and ask why not (or alternately, ask who assumed the doctor had to be the boy’s father):

A man and his son are driving along and get into a bad car accident. The ambulance shows up and takes them both to the hospital. The son is rushed into surgery. The doctor who will perform the surgery enters the operating room, but as soon as the doctor sees the patient, the doctor says, “I can’t operate on this boy, he is my son.” How is this possible?

The answer: The doctor is the boy’s mother.

Tell the students:

• Since many people can’t figure out why the boy could be the son of both the man in the car and the doctor, they are making an assumption – without even realizing it – that the doctor is male or that no one has two fathers. But really, half of all doctors now are female, and many families have two fathers.
• If the students are not surprised that the doctor is female, explain that just a few years ago, people were so trained to think of doctors as men that they were always surprised by this riddle!
• We’ll be talking about making assumptions today. First, we’re going to talk a little about difference.

II. Celebrate Difference: Stand Up/Sit Down Game

(estimated time: 10 minutes)

Volunteer Leading this activity _________________________________________

Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________

Activity Goals:

• Celebrate individual difference.
• Define “stereotype.”
• Introduce the idea of prejudice as “pre-judge.”
• Show how everyone has things about them that are unique and that you would not find out these things just by making assumptions based on appearance or actions.

Tell the students that you will read a series of statements aloud. Ask the students to stand up if they think a particular statement applies to them. After reading each statement, give the students a few seconds to reflect before taking their seats. Feel free to participate in the activity yourself.

Statements to be read out loud:

Stand up if you…

• Take the bus to school.
• Have more than three brothers and sisters.
• Are left-handed.
• Speak a language other than English.
• Like N’Sync.
• Were born outside of New Haven.
• Regularly go to religious services (church, temple, etc).
• Have flown on a plane.
• Play a musical instrument.

Follow this game with a discussion:

• What did you notice about your classmates during this game?
• That everyone is different.
• What are some ways that people are different?
• Examples from the game, plus where they live, skin color, their jobs, etc.
• Is there anything that is necessarily bad about any of these differences?
• What can be good about people being different?
• Would you know all these things about your classmates just by the way they look or act when you first meet them?

Tell the students that you want to talk about a word that relates to difference: Stereotype.

• Ask the students to come up with a definition of the word “stereotype”.
• No, not a type of radio!
• A stereotype is a generalization we make about a group of people. It’s an oversimplified image of a person: a category that we put people in based on one, two, or a few obvious characteristics when we don’t know the person.
• When you stereotype a person, you make assumptions about them before getting to know them. A lot of times, these assumptions are negative and you pre-judge a person. In other words, you have prejudices.
• For example, if all the people who took the bus to school were considered stupid just because they took the bus to school, that would be a stereotype. Obviously, this would be untrue – so are many stereotypes.
• What is an example of a stereotype?
• Yale students are rich. Girls care about clothes and boys care about sports. Women are bad drivers. White people can’t dance. Black people are good at basketball.

Tell the students that you’re going to play a game to see what it’s like when an individual gets stereotyped.

III. Get Stereotyped: The Stereotypin’ Game

(estimated time: 15 minutes)

Volunteer Leading this activity _________________________________________

Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________

Activity Goals:

• Stereotype students in a safe environment.
• Show that being stereotyped against is often hurtful.

• Realize that some generalizations can be good and helpful but that successful people realize the stereotypes they have and don’t let them apply in every situation.

• Show that students start to act like the label they’ve been given.

• Understand the relationship between stereotypes and conflict.

Tell the students that you need four volunteers to attend an imaginary party. You will tape a card to the volunteers’ foreheads so they can’t see it, then the rest of the class will treat the volunteers according to the stereotype attached to their heads. The volunteers will have to guess how they have been labeled.

The stereotype cards should read:

• Football Player
• Nerd/Teacher’s Pet
• Cheerleader
• Popular Kid

Choose students who DO NOT match the stereotypes. For example, choose the most macho boy with his hand raised for the cheerleader role. No student should actually be stereotyped against.

Set up ground rules: no insulting, no physical contact, people who do not have a stereotype card should stay in their seats.

Have each student enter the “party” one at a time. The rest of the students should treat the party-goer according to the stereotype on his/her forehead.

After each student figures out what is taped to their head, ask them how it felt to be stereotyped against. Is it fun? Is it fair?

• Because this is a game, sometimes students will say that it didn’t bother them to be stereotyped against. You may need to prod, “But when you were up here and everyone was laughing at you and you didn’t know why and really, it wasn’t even true…how did it make you feel? How would it make you feel if this were real and happened every day?”

Try to point out an example of how someone being stereotyped against in this game started to act like that stereotype said they should. Ask for some other examples of how this happens in real life.

• For example, if everyone thinks students who get good grades are nerds and like to be alone, then a student who gets good grades might start to hang out alone because everyone says that’s what they do.
• For example, if someone is told that since they are good at sports, they’re not smart, then they might stop studying and appear to be stupid.

Finish the discussion with:

• Are generalizations or stereotypes ever helpful? Why do we have them?

• Yes. For example, if you’re in a foreign country, it would be useful to assume that a stranger you meet will probably follow the country’s customs, so you can behave appropriately. (Remember the Communication lesson’s Suuls and Icthalonians Game).
• Make the point that some generalizations can be good and helpful but that successful people realize the stereotypes they have and don’t let them apply in every situation.

• Are stereotypes always negative?
• No. For example, there are common stereotypes that Asian people are good at math, that girls are good dancers, and that black men are good a basketball.

• So is it ok to have positive stereotypes?

• Even though it is a positive stereotype, it is still not always true, and can also be hurtful.
• How can a positive stereotype be hurtful?
• If a person is limited to what they’re supposed to be good at by their stereotypes, then that’s hurtful. For example, an Asian artist could have a hard time finding a job painting because people might think their talent is math, not art.
• Where do stereotypes come from?
• Television, news, family, etc.
• What does a stereotype have to do with conflict?
• People can get into conflicts because they stereotype (make untrue assumptions); also stereotypes limit communication and that makes conflicts worse.
• Why do you think people say or think these things about other people?
• Are stereotypes always true? Are stereotypes ever true?
• In order to be true, they would have to hold for EVERY SINGLE member of the group all of the time!

Tell the students that you’re going to try to answer this question with the next game.

IV. Stereotypes Don’t Apply to Everyone: Stand-up Game

(estimated time: 15 minutes)

Volunteer Leading this activity _________________________________________

Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________

Activity Goals:

• Show that stereotypes are not always true.

• Learn how to overcome stereotypes by communicating: getting to know the other person by talking about what makes you different (point about spiders, below).
• Similarly, learn that to communicate well, a person need to overcome their pre-assumptions (prejudices)

To decide if stereotypes are always true or not, ask the students to brainstorm some stereotypes of girls and boys (and any other relevant categories that apply to many people in the room). Write them on the board. Some examples are:

• Girls
• Don’t play sports.
• Don’t want to have a career, just want a family.
• Are bad at math.
• Played with dolls/Didn’t play with trucks as a little kid.
• Care a lot about clothes and make-up.
• Like to dance.
• Boys
• Play sports.
• Don’t care about how they look.
• Swear a lot.
• Played with trucks/Didn’t play with dolls as a little kid.
• Hate to dance.
• Don’t shower as much as girls.
• People who wear glasses
• Care more about doing homework than anything else.
• Don’t have any friends.
• Aren’t cool.
• Don’t play sports.
• Get good grades.
• Are smart.

Once you have a decent list, ask students to stand up when you say something that applies to them. The common stereotypes don’t apply to all the students who are standing. For example,

• All girls who play sports stand up.
• All boys who like to dance stand up.

Continue having groups of students stand until every student is standing.

Discussion:

• Ask the students what this means in terms of stereotypes. Are stereotypes always true?
• Most people don’t fit into stereotypes. If everyone or almost everyone in this class does not fit into a stereotype that they’re labeled as, then most people probably don’t fit neatly into stereotypes.
• What’s a way to get rid of stereotypes?
• If you get to know someone, you’ll find out that they don’t fit into stereotypes.
• Asking people questions about themselves also helps you see them as individuals with unique interests, not as representatives of their stereotyped groups. Think of the opening game: you learned a lot about people (i.e., who was born in New Haven, what music people like, etc.) that you would not have learned if you didn’t bother to get to know them.
• Communication! Communication can help you get rid of stereotypes; similarly, good communication is impossible when you stereotype!
• Spider Example: For example, if someone is afraid of spiders, they never go near spiders and so they never realize that spiders aren’t so scary after all. A way to end stereotypes is to get to know someone that you stereotype – you will realize that there is much more to them than the stereotype, and once you get to know them, they won’t be so scary.
• What can the people who get stereotyped do to get rid of those stereotypes?
• Show people that the stereotypes aren’t true.
• What happens when people don’t get rid of stereotypes, for example, based on skin color?
• Racism.

V. Discussion of Racism

(estimated time: 25 minutes)

Volunteer Leading this activity _________________________________________

Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________

Activity Goals:

• Discuss racism as an example of stereotype and prejudice.
• Show that racism is everyone’s problem.
• Show that even young people can have a big impact on racism.

**Racism is a very delicate subject. One week in advance of teaching this lesson, you should get permission from the classroom teacher to have this discussion. Also, under no circumstances should you bring up or discuss racial slurs.**

Feel free to deviate from this discussion outline. Somewhere in the discussion, make sure to get these key points across:

• Looking at the color of someone’s skin and making judgments about them before you know anything else about them is stereotyping. You are pre-judging them. This is prejudice.
• Racism is when you stereotype based on race (when you are prejudiced).
• Prejudice and racism are one way stereotypes get implemented in a bad way.
• There is a difference between noticing color, which is not racist, and making something negative or positive of color, which is racist.
• One reason that racism is so problematic is that people have power to act on their prejudices.
• Racism is not fair because the negative stereotypes don’t apply to everyone.
• Sometimes people start to act like what they have been labeled as, which makes people think the stereotypes are true.

Although the discussion has worked well in the past, if you are not comfortable with it or if you would otherwise prefer to do so, you can do The Hurricane activity instead. Or, you can combine both. What actually gets discussed will depend a great deal on what the students want to talk about, but it helps to have an idea of how you can shape the discussion.

Discussion outline (estimated time: 25 minutes):

Ask, what does racism have to do with stereotyping?

• Looking at the color of someone’s skin and making judgments about them before you know anything else about them is stereotyping. You are pre-judging them. This is prejudice.
• Racism is when you stereotype based on race(are prejudiced).
• Prejudice and racism are one way stereotypes get implemented in a bad way.
• There is a difference between noticing color, which is not racist, and making something negative or positive of color, which is racist.

Ask, what are some personal examples of racism that you have encountered or heard of?

• Some examples they might give are: siblings getting pulled over while driving because they are black, a salesman refusing to sell them something because of their race, examples from the 1960’s civil rights movements, etc.

Some students in the past have reported that when they go into a store, they are followed by the salesperson, who thinks they are going to steal something just because they are black or because they are a teenager. Ask the students:

• Is this fair?
• Is this true?
• Who here would not steal something even if they could get away with it?
• If these teenagers/black students wouldn’t steal, then that shows the stereotype isn’t always true, or fair.
• Some students will probably admit that they would steal if they had the opportunity. Make the point that sometimes people start to act like the stereotypes they’ve been labeled as.
• Ask, how does this apply to racism?
• If someone is being labeled as something, they might think they’re going to get in trouble for whatever it is anyway, so they might as well do it.
• How can this be avoided?
• Remember self-respect lesson (Unit 5).

Discuss why racism is such a problem.

• One reason that racism is so problematic is that people have power to act on their prejudices, like locking up black men (see “Hurricane”).

Discuss the question: what can you guys do to end racism and other forms of prejudice? Whose job is it to end racism, or to undo what racism has done?

• Among other things, discuss the Spider Example again (see above).
• Possibly discuss The Hurricane (below).

Racism is everyone’s problem: The Hurricane (estimated time: 25 minutes)

Briefly tell the students what happened:

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a boxer, dreamed of being the middleweight champion. He was arrested for the murder of three people in a New Jersey bar, and although he was clearly innocent, he was sentenced to three life sentences. He wrote an autobiography while in jail, The Sixteenth Round, and his case attracted national attention by people like Muhammed Ali and Bob Dylan.

Hand out the lyrics of the Bob Dylan song, “The Hurricane”. If available, play the song for the students and have them read along.

Note: The original lyrics of the song “The Hurricane” contain many swear words and the word “nigger.” These words have been removed from the version printed here, but of course will still be in the song if you play it. Feel free to take out the third to last verse and others with swears for a shortened version. If you do leave in the complete lyrics, please speak with your classroom teacher one week in advance.

Discuss what information they can find from the song lyrics. Make sure to ask the students:

• How was racism involved in The Hurricane case?
• What does racism have to do with stereotyping?
• Looking at the color of someone’s skin and making judgments about them before you know anything else about them is stereotyping. You are pre-judging them. This is prejudice.
• Racism is when you stereotype based on race(are prejudiced) and also think that one race is superior.
• There is a difference between noticing color, which is not racist, and making something negative or positive of color, which is racist.
• Why was racism such a problem for Carter?
• One reason that racism is so problematic is that people have power to act on their prejudices, like by locking up black men.
• Whose job is it to end racism, or to undo what racism has done?

After the students discuss whose job it is to end racism, tell them the rest of The Hurricane’s story:

Years after The Hurricane’s book came out, a young, alienated American boy read the autobiography and found meaning for the first time in his life. The boy was convinced of Carter’s innocence and enlisted the help of his guardians, who happened to be social activists, to free the boxer. Carter said, “Hate put me in prison, love is gonna bust me out.” Carter and the boy were successful, and twenty years after he had been wrongly imprisoned, The Hurricane eventually walked free.

Ask,

Does this change what you think about whose problem racism is?

What do you think about the comment, “Hate put me in prison, love is gonna bust me out”?

**Point out that very famous adults like Muhammed Ali and Bob Dylan tried to get The Hurricane out of prison, but that it was a kid who was finally successful.

VI. Closing Activity: Summary

(estimated time: 5 minutes)

Volunteer Leading this activity _________________________________________

Estimated time for your class to complete this activity _______________________

Activity Goals:

• Review what we have learned.

Have the students summarize what they have learned:

• Definition of stereotype, generalization, pre-judge, racism.
• Why difference is good.
• That stereotypes don’t apply to everyone and aren’t always true.
• Why stereotyping is hurtful.
• Why racism is everyone’s problem.

BEFORE YOU GO:

· Tell the class when you will be visiting next.

· Discuss with the teacher how your group handled the students and ask for his or her critique.

· Make notes for yourself on how the lesson went.

MATERIALS:

• Cards for Get Stereotyped: The Stereotypin’ Game.
• One of each card.

• Copies of the Bob Dylan Song, “Hurricane” for Racism Discussion/Racism is Everyone’s Problem: The Hurricane.
• Enough copies for the entire class.

Football Player

Nerd/Teacher’s Pet

Cheerleader

Popular Kid
The Hurricane, by Bob Dylan

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter said, “Hate put me in prison, love is gonna bust me out.”

He was right.

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
 
Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.
"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.
I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops."
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night.
 
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda sh** was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that.
In Paterson that's just the way things go.
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.
 
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
 
Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
 
Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame.
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"
"Don't forget that you are white."
 
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You'll be doin' society a favor.
That sonofa***** is brave and gettin' braver.
We want to put his a** in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim."
 
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail.
But then they took him to the jail house
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
 
All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy fool.
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger. 
And though they could not produce the gun,
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.
 
Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.
 
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell.
That's the story of the Hurricane,
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

Note: some words in the song above have been changed in order to make the song more appropriate for school.

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