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Originally Posted by mixedmedia
Where the word prejudice gets its negative connotation? As in it has a positive connotation? I think something went over my head here, lol.
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I should have made that comment clearer. What I was trying to point out is that everyone is prejudice. Some prejudice is an everyday thing that people don’t see as negative per se. Here are a couple of examples of non-negative prejudgments. Everyone walks down the street and prejudges people as they see them based on clothing, actions, etc. You see a woman with expensive clothes walking down the street yapping on her cell phone, you make a snap judgment of her personality. When you see a man in sweats running down the street, you make a prejudgment. There is no action made from these prejudgments, but they are made. When people walk in for interviews, they are prejudged based on their outward appearance and body language. However, when hateful acts or language are the product of prejudgments, it becomes negative and no one wants to be associated with it. Since this is the main use of the word prejudice, to call someone prejudice is almost like calling him or her a 4-letter word even though everybody is prejudice.
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Originally Posted by mixedmedia
This is not a phenomena distinct to poor black students. It is an American phenomena that is, yes, most pronounced in our poorest neighborhoods but is also affecting even the most advantaged of our kids.
I think we need to be really careful when we're talking about this issue because, really, it comes down to whether you think the ghettos are that way because of socio-economic imbalances or because the people living in them are black.
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That is the tough issue. As I mentioned before, I did my Action Research Project for my Master’s degree on teaching this area. This project became much bigger than I anticipated because I opened up a huge can of worms. The surface of the problem is in this thread, but it goes much deeper and it’s pretty much left up to how far you want to travel down the rabbit hole. I had to stop eventually because I was hitting deadlines.
What I found is not only a racial clash, but a value clash. Values are set by people and vary from race, economic background, religious backgrounds, etc. When doing my research I found that the lower-economic class generally values entertainment and personal relationships. Middle class values focus more on success with material wealth and personal relationships. I will dig out my papers if people want links and sources, but it’s buried somewhere from the move last year. But the gist is:
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The researcher stated that the lower class lives for the present. Surviving paycheck to paycheck and wondering how to provide the next meal, the lower class’s focus is on “now” and how to get through today.
According to the presenter, the middle class lives for the future. Without the worry of daily survival, this class works hard to forward its position in society. Parents in this class encourage their kids to work hard and go to school, hoping for the next generation to make it farther than their own.
Finally the presenter stated that the upper class lives for the past. With the pressure on to maintain the family name and not squander the family’s fortune, members of the upper class feel a strong sense of tradition and spend their time working to uphold that standard.
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School is based on the middle-class values because teachers are living those values. The problem is that the students can’t relate to the teachers and vice versa. Once the problem is realized the teacher can work around it, but it is difficult. When these children are used to living just for now and not for the future, it’s hard to explain to them that they need to learn and work now in order to meet the goals for the future. They honestly believe that a scout will just walk by their empty lot one day and see them playing football and sign them on.
Anyway, the problem isn’t just racial and it isn’t just economic status, it’s a combination of those 2 things and many other factors. However, since I work in a black, low-economic area, I am trying to find answers for me, which is why this was initially a journal entry so that I could sort out thoughts and continue to search out ways to improve my teaching so that I could better reach my students. However, I’m glad that I made it into a post because the insights and discussion going on is amazing and I thank everyone for your input.
Roachboy: I don’t have a problem with hip-hop music. I’m not a member of the ‘music is going to destroy the nation’ camp. The reason that rap is brought up in this thread is because of the hypocrisy it poses with the Imus situation last week. I also think that it is a factor in the way black students act because they do look up to the rappers, which doesn’t always paint the most realistic and positive images. Which leads to my main issue: there is a lack of positive black role models.