posted on Dec, 17 2014 @ 02:15 PM
9gag.com...
Hmm...
Real quick, the article tells of a teacher who demonstrated privilege through trashketball. (Did I just coin that? If yes, then I claim dibs, but
there's no way that isn't already a used term, is there?) It's pretty short, so you should just read it, I guess.
While this story illustrates the teacher's point, it should be pointed out that it is only a metaphor for what the teacher believes. Subjective, not
objective. I wonder if the seats were assigned. If they were, then that is the teacher giving privilege to who he sees fit. Did he seat only whites
in the front? Again, HIS doing. By name, alphabetically? Then why make this about race? Did the kids seat themselves? Which kids sat in the front
vs the back. The ones in front PROBABLY, IMO, want to succeed more, or at least have been taught more successful methods than the others, by their
guardians, while I'm guessing the ones in back were more worried about sitting by friends who they could talk to, or where they could be on their
phones w/o being caught as easily. If that's the case, THEY set themselves up for failure by not sitting in the front. Take this specific exercise
out of the equation. Those who sit in front are more likely to succeed. They're more involved, just by proxy. They can see better. They can hear
better. They probably have less distractions. "But what about the ones who WANTED to sit in the front, but couldn't?" They should have gotten
there earlier. I know that there are exceptions to most rules, so yeah, SOME might be getting the SHAFT, but again, how is it about race, unless the
teacher wants to admit to contributing to the problem due to his own practices vs prejudices? On a tangent, I wonder if any of the students asked for
help getting their paper ball into the basket, from those sitting in front of them. Finally, I wonder how many (non-white) students' opinions were
changed by this. How many of them now have an excuse to rely on, when otherwise, they would have believed you get out what you put in... What say
you? (For the record, 35/white(ish) male/Seattle area)
(Mods, feel free to move to appropriate forum, if this isn't it)