“Dad, what is the Clue Clux Clan,” asked my 10-year-old son Bakary as we sat under a shade tree on Saturday in Montgomery, Ala. We were waiting to register for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s 40th-anniversary celebration.“Well, it’s the Ku Klux Klan,” I told him. “Do you remember the old song that goes, “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight?” Well, the KKK thinks only white people are precious and they try to hurt people who think differently.” “Oh, I’m glad it’s not the ‘Clue Clux Clan’ because they don’t have a clue,” he said. (May 2, 2011)
I have come across to learn about The #USVSHATE (“US Versus HATE”) which is an educator and youth-led messaging project designed to counter bigotry in schools, create welcoming classrooms, and embrace inclusion and justice for all in diverse schools and society. We seek to unite school communities against hate, bias, and injustice. Every school community can help spread the message. All community members are part of the “US.” The #USvsHate project is a nationwide anti-bias initiative to amplify student’s voices and push back against messages of bias, bigotry, and hate. Lessons on topics like racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, and more will find a wide variety of opportunities for students to understand tolerance. The lessons invite students to reject bigotry, build relationships, and explore deeper biases and injustices we can fix together.
SUBJECT: READING & LANGUAGE ARTS, CIVICS ARTS
Objectives: Activities meet the following objectives:
- access, study and compare primary-source documents
- research and organize information
- plan, organize and execute a live performance
Essential Questions
- What is the nature of hate?
- What is the statistical picture of hate crimes in America?
- How does the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act expand protections against hate crimes?
- Who were Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.?
- How does the new law compare to previous hate-crimes legislation?
Materials
- Internet access
- Primary-source documents: 1969 Federal Hate-Crime Law and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
- Simple costumes and props for a one-person performance
- Podcast
Note: Human is the race that grows emotionally based on prejudices. A prejudice may lead a person to supremacy complex or inferiority complex through an opinion, prejudgment, or attitude about a group or its individual members. Prejudice can be positive, but our usage in this podcast refers to a negative attitude. Prejudices are often accompanied by ignorance, fear, or hatred. Prejudices are formed by a complex psychological process that begins with attachment to a close circle of acquaintances or an “in-group” such as a family. Prejudice is often aimed at “out-groups”. It contributes to Discrimination which is behavior that treats people unequally because of their group memberships. Discriminatory behavior, ranging from slights to hate crimes, often begins with negative stereotypes and prejudices. The father of Mothua philosophy Hori Chad Thakur (1811 AD) in Bangladesh was denied admission to community school unfairly for prevailing prejudices of the school administration towards the colored community naming Chondal and Shudro tribes.
In the case of police, bias may affect split-second, life-or-death decisions. Shootings of black men incorrectly thought to be holding guns— George Floyed’s murder and many more racial hate crimes display stereotypes of immigrants in New York, police misconduct —brought this issue into the public debate. It is possible unconscious prejudices and stereotypes may also affect court jury deliberations and other daily tasks requiring judgments of human character. People who argue that prejudice is not a big problem today are, ironically, demonstrating the problem of unconscious prejudice.
We refuse explicit bigotry. Cruelty, bullying, and slurs are just not OK in school.