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| This is what I look like while sorting through the questionnaires... |
This week I finished up distributing surveys to BASIS Peoria's high school students. Shout out to Mrs. Grant and Mrs. Schiller for allowing me some class time to reach out to the majority of the upper school students!
Just like last week, I am sorting through the surveys and recording all the data while taking pictures of some of the well versed and hilariously interesting answers.
For example...
Here's a serious, well-thought-out answer:
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| "I think Islamophobia is an increasing problem in the U.S. as more reports of terrorists attacks are spreading a lot of fear. So much so, that presidential candidates are getting asked what they're going to do about [it] and that our electronic devices are being watched for clues of terrorism. Fear is expressed in many ways, one of which is cracking jokes and teasing people. Due to this, any school you enter will have a group of kids teasing someone for being Muslim, and that is not right because you can't stereotype a whole religious group for what a small fraction of it has done." |
And here, a more witty one:
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| "Probably. But there is a cause, like how I imagine there was in the Turkish empire during the crusades, a fair amount of fear of Christians. Really though, the problem is just in snap judgments mankind is programmed to make as a survival instinct, and then people acting disproportionately in response,Like even today, there is a prominent fear of Communists and of Communist-related thoughts, even though socialists aren't evil. Plus, we all know that the real threat to American peace is China. Give them 30 years with an 80% male population they're going to try and expand." |
So, as you can see, it really is eye opening to see what is going on the minds of our youth (all students given surveys on paper were under the age of 18).
Now, all I need to do is complete my data collection and start preparing my presentation!
I think your examples are interesting. I particularly enjoyed the one about China. Was that a joke, just prejudice directed at something other than Muslims, or a bigger problem of indifference? How do we combat all of those?
ReplyDelete-Darla Grant
I think this kid was just joking, but the important fact he mentioned is how prone humanity is at stereotyping. The point that I think he is trying to make is that our fears can be "irrational" and in an attempt to rationalize our fears we adopt selective perception. Maybe China was an example of this.
ReplyDeleteI don't really fear China, but if certain facts/figures are highlighted one might think "hey, there seems to be a good reason to be afraid."
Of course, I have no way of knowing with what intention this kid brought up China as the questionnaire was anonymous...but these are the kind of answers I wanted--ones that were honest.
There were so many kids who wrote things like "I'm not racist" and "not all Muslims are bad," but this would contradict their answers to Question 11 and 12 to my questionnaire which depicts a man wearing a thawb (pronounced: thobe-clothing commonly worn in the Middle East) and asks their first thoughts and feelings. I asked for at most three of each. In many questionnaires, one person who have contradicting feelings/thoughts like "I'm scared", "that's cool traditional clothing", "meh, I don't care...not my business." This discrepancy proves that even though people know it's wrong to stereotype and label, they do it anyway. Is there a way to stop it? I don't think so...humans fear and take precautions. That's not wrong, what is wrong is when your precautions are infringing upon others.
You can liken this example to the fear of sharks eating you while swimming in the ocean. People are more likely to die in a car crash than by a shark's jaws, but so many text and drive without second thought. People fear sharks and shark attacks even though it happens very rarely. Still, no one is declaring war on the sharks and slaughtering all of them for fear of beating eaten.
This may not be a very good analogy, but you get what I'm trying to say... some fears are irrational and we shouldn't overreact.
The real question is: are you afraid of the Muslims or the terrorists?
Because they are not the same thing.