• Would you knock a man down if you don't like the cut of his clothes• Could you put a man away if you don't want to hear what he knows• Well it's happening right here people dying of fear by the droves• And I know most of you• Either don't believe it's true,• Or else you don't know what to do• Or maybe I'm singing about you,• Who knows.

• It's incredibly sick, you can feel it, as across the land it flows• Prejudice is slick when it's a word game, it festers and grows,• Move along quick, it furthers one to have somewhere to go

• People see somebody different fear is the first reaction shown• Then they think they've got him licked the barbaric hunt begins and they move in

slow• A human spirit is devoured the remains left to carrion crow• I was told that life is change• And yet history remains,• Does it always stay the same• Do we shrug it off and say• Only God knows

• You've got to be taught• To hate and fear,• You've got to be taught• From year to year,• It's got to be drummed• In your dear little ear• You've got to be carefully taught.

• You've got to be taught to be afraid• Of people whose eyes are oddly made,• And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,• You've got to be carefully taught.

• You've got to be taught before it's too late,• Before you are six or seven or eight,• To hate all the people your relatives hate,• You've got to be carefully taught

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jca_p_3FcWA

Cultural identity, stereotypes and discrimination

STEREOTYPES

• We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all of the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. In the absence of the "total picture," stereotypes in many cases allow us to "fill in the blanks."

• Our society often innocently creates and perpetuates stereotypes, but these stereotypes often lead to unfair discrimination and persecution when the stereotype is unfavorable.

• In virtually every case, we are resorting to prejudice by ascribing characteristics about a person based on a stereotype, without knowledge of the total facts. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Quite often, we have stereotypes about persons who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact.

• Television, books, comic strips, and movies are all abundant sources of stereotyped characters.

• For much of its history, the movie industry portrayed African-Americans as being unintelligent, lazy, or violence-prone. As a result of viewing these stereotyped pictures of African-Americans, for example, prejudice against African-Americans has been encouraged.

• In the same way, physically attractive women have been and continue to be portrayed as unintelligent or unintellectual and sexually promiscuous.

• "To Surveil with Love" is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons' twenty-first season.

• In the episode, Lisa dyes her hair after being stereotyped for being blonde.

• Complete the following sentences:

– All athletes are….– People on welfare are all….– Drugs are used by…– All politicians are….– All people with AIDS are…– All Christian Fundamentalists are– All male ballet dancers are– All Jewish mothers are– All Harvard graduates are– All construction workers are– He's so dumb, he must be– He's so smart, he must be– He's quick-tempered, so he must be

• People make judgements about people based on:– Their gender– Their age– Their appearance– Their ethnicity– Their religious beliefs– Their sexuality– Their occupations

• If this judgement then results in negative behaviour to a person then discrimination takes place

Discrimination

• When we judge people and groups based on our prejudices and stereotypes and treat them differently, we are engaging in discrimination.

• This discrimination can take many forms. – We may avoid them completely– We may behave and speak to them differently– We may give people different opportunities.

• Women and minorities are often excluded from high echelon positions in the business world.

• Many clubs have restrictive membership policies which do not permit certain groups to join.

Racism

• Anthropologists, scientists who study humans and their origins, generally accept that the human species can be categorized into races based on physical and genetic makeup.

• Virtually all scientists accept the fact that there is no credible scientific evidence that one race is culturally or psychologically different from any other, or that one race is superior to another. Past studies which reached conclusions other than that have been found to be seriously flawed in their methodology or inherently biased.

• Yet despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary, there are people who maintain that their own race is superior to all others. These people, known collectively as "racists," are the most likely to engage in discrimination, persecution, and violence against those they deem to be members of "inferior" races.

• In 19th century Europe, Jews were classified as an "inferior" race with specific physical and personality characteristics. An increasing emphasis on nationalism also highlighted the Jews as a "foreign element," which could contaminate the native stock and culture and potentially dominate the native population economically and politically. This long-standing history provided a seed-bed for the Nazi ideology and program of genocide.

• In North America, African-Americans were brought from Africa as slaves, and their descendants have endured centuries of oppression. During the Civil War, slaves were freed and granted citizenship. Although racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan have small memberships, they have been actively recruiting and holding rallies in Pennsylvania and other states and spreading their messages of hate against African-Americans, Jews, Catholics, and other minorities.

Film: “Schindler’s list”

Film: “12 years a slave”

Sexism

• The concept of equal rights for women is as old as the ancient Greeks; the Greek philosopher Plato advocated for equality between the sexes in his Republic. Few civilizations have even approached this equality, however, and it has only been in modern times that women have been granted legal rights which were routinely applied only to men..

• In was only in the early part of he 20th Century, thanks to the Sufferagets movement, that an act was passed giving women the right to vote. It was not until 1980’s that a woman served as Prime Minister

• The Equal Pay act of 1970 prohibited sexual discrimination with regard to pay and stated that women must receive equal pay for equal work, a concept which only a few decades ago was unthinkable. “

• Although sexual discrimination remains a problem at all levels of society, women have risen to leadership positions in government, business, and the professions, but not to the same degree as their male counterparts.

Film: “Made in Dagenham”

Just as a school bully can assert his power over a weaker student by pure physical intimidation, a

minority group may be victimized by a more powerful majority which is insensitive to the

needs and aspirations of that minority.

Minority groups may be subjected to dehumanization experiences made to feel

powerless by being subjected to degrading and humiliating experiences based on prejudice.

Cultural identity

• Cultural identity is the identity or feeling of belonging to, as part of the self-conception and self-perception to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality and any kind of social group that have its own distinct culture

The importance of culture vs globalisation

• In all our countries we must foster a model of dialogue that strikes a proper balance between respect for the identities of origin and adhesion to shared values.

• The globalisation of culture is a fact of life. It is at once an extraordinary opportunity for the circulation of ideas, people, works and products, but there is also a risk of everyone falling into the same mould, and their cultures and languages disappearing. Here are some figures:– 85% of the films produced in the world are made by Hollywood studios, – four firms share the bulk of the world's music market, – and 60% of the fiction programmes shown on television in many of our

countries are made in the USA.

• The universal mind, which consistently transcends the frontiers of the world and the frontiers of time, and makes us feel - whoever we are, wherever we are - that we are part of the same humanity.

• I feel there is a kind of tightrope between identity and equality.

• There is indeed a balance to be found. A fragile balance between cultural diversity and the aspiration toward equality demanded by our democratic societies.

If we lean too far on the “identity” side, we run

the risk of turning diversity into division,

and in the long run making society nothing

more than a conglomeration of

enclosed communities.

However, if we lean too far on the “equality

side”, there is a great risk of depriving

individuals of their ability to develop

multiple affiliations, thus leaving them disembodied and

uprooted.

Martin Luther King

“And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from

every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands…

We are part of

the same humanity

Silent Reflection

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognise, accept,

and celebrate those differences. — Audre Lorde, poet