Central High School vs. Dunbar High School

The Little Rock Nine would have had to had attended Dunbar High School (one of the all black high schools in Little Rock). The buildings look exactly identical, but the classes that they offered were different. At Dunbar, one of the classes was on how to do laundry. At Central High School, they students had the option to pick from six different languages. What do you think about this difference? If you were a black student in Little Rock at the time, how would this difference influence your thinking about schools?

Interview with Melba

Go to the website below and read through the interview with Melba (as an adult):

http://pbskids.org/wayback/civilrights/buzz/index.html

What are some insights that you have as you went through the questions? What do you think about Melba's experiences and her advice?

Discuss Your Research Topic

What is your research topic? What happened in the event (give a brief explanation)? Who are the upstanders, bystanders, perpetrators and victims involved in your topic? Explain with examples.

Respond to Your Classmates

Look back at the responses from the last post about stereotypes from House on Mango Street. I want you to respond to one of your classmate's thoughts and make a connection to what he or she wrote and a judgment (share your thinking). Here is an example of what I am looking for:

Jessica Pelayo wrote:
The author thinks the stereotypes she describes come from everyone around us. We are all guilty of prejudice because we all judge people by their color or how they look. And that's how stereotypes are started. I also believe that they come from all of us, because I am sure that there is not one person out there that hasn't prejudged someone. So we need to blame ourselves. I think stereotyping can be stopped by everyone just accepting everyone else instead of the first thing they notice is the color of their skin or the way they look when you first see them and just getting to know the person a little bit more. Because we are all equal and it's not right.

Jessica,

I like you how you say that we are all guilty of judging others because we all have have looked at other people and had thoughts (many times wrong) right away. It isn't right (like you say) and I think that it holds people back from meeting some really awesome people. These types of judgments are the basis for stereotyping. For example, I am friends with someone who has a very heavy accent. A couple of my friends think it is strange that I am friends with this person, but the person is extremely funny and I am grateful for having had the opportunity to have gotten to know the person the way that I have. I could have been like my friends, this person has a heavy accent and think that the individual isn't as smart as they are, but I took the time to get to the individual. For me, trying to avoid stereotyping is an issue of fairness. I know I have many imperfections and I'd hate for someone to miss out on the chance to really get to know me because they judged me for being too tall, too white, too bookish, too beautiful (j/k), or whatever. Thanks for an insightful post.

Mr. Barr

*****Be sure to meet the length requirements for your blog entry... see the sidebar for more details if you don't remember my expectations for a developed answer*****

"Those Who Don't"

In House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros writes:

Those who don’t know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we’re dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake.

But we aren’t afraid. We know the guy with the crooked eye is Davy the Baby’s brother, and the tall one next to him in the straw brim [hat], that’s Rosa’s Eddie V. and the big one that looks like a dumb grown man, he’s Fat Boy, though he’s not fat anymore nor a boy.

All brown all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes.

Answer the following questions in your response. Be sure to follow the blog expectations for full credit. List the stereotypes that they have of us. List the stereotypes that we have of them. Where does the author think the stereotypes she describes come from? Where do you think they come from? How can stereotyping be stopped?