Stereotypes
I was already prepared for the racist stereotypes but you never know when and where you'll hear them. Today I got my first taste of it in my 6th grade classes. I had to do a self-introduction and I decided to let the children guess answers about things about me. Like where I'm from, what foods I like, what sport I like.... so on and so forth.
So first we start with my country... kids are yelling out things like France, America, and Africa... normal stuff. Then all of a sudden when we get to the food portion the kids are like fried chicken, watermelon, hamburgers, etc. and one kid is looking at me and was like
you know you like fried chicken
.. so I'm like ...
In my head I'm having a dilemma. I do in fact like those things but I'm like where are these answers coming from?? lol but I let it go..
Then when I ask what they think my favorite animal is they go straight to gorilla and ask me if I like jungles and shit. Like I know you fucking lying xDD lol
I couldn't help but laugh. Because these kids are but 11 and 12 and I know they aren't coming from a hateful place. They are getting this info from somewhere... like who teaching ya'll racist stereotypes? And the fuck I look like in a jungle? I'm bougie as hell... I can't even camp lol. My idea of camping is in a log cabin with running water and a nice bed lol aka a retreat.
But yeah when you are a black or brown person be prepared to be asked weird questions or given strange answers. The kids just don't know about you and they really don't know any better. Yeah I happen to like stereotypical black foods like watermelon and fried chicken. But I know some kids were expecting those to be my answers. However, if you're a black/brown person and you're doing slides surprise them with something else that they wouldn't expect you to like. I love unagidon (eel over rice) The kids were super surprised about that and other kids even liked it as well so we built some common ground.
Anyway despite the weird answers they gave we had a lot fun and I got to learn more about them as did they about me. I was happy to find out that a lot of the kids like anime and volleyball (my favorite sport!!!). Here's to more fun days!! I also had fried kabocha (pumpkin! another one of my favorites) today!! It was delicious <3 <3
So first we start with my country... kids are yelling out things like France, America, and Africa... normal stuff. Then all of a sudden when we get to the food portion the kids are like fried chicken, watermelon, hamburgers, etc. and one kid is looking at me and was like
you know you like fried chicken
.. so I'm like ...
In my head I'm having a dilemma. I do in fact like those things but I'm like where are these answers coming from?? lol but I let it go..
Then when I ask what they think my favorite animal is they go straight to gorilla and ask me if I like jungles and shit. Like I know you fucking lying xDD lol
I couldn't help but laugh. Because these kids are but 11 and 12 and I know they aren't coming from a hateful place. They are getting this info from somewhere... like who teaching ya'll racist stereotypes? And the fuck I look like in a jungle? I'm bougie as hell... I can't even camp lol. My idea of camping is in a log cabin with running water and a nice bed lol aka a retreat.
But yeah when you are a black or brown person be prepared to be asked weird questions or given strange answers. The kids just don't know about you and they really don't know any better. Yeah I happen to like stereotypical black foods like watermelon and fried chicken. But I know some kids were expecting those to be my answers. However, if you're a black/brown person and you're doing slides surprise them with something else that they wouldn't expect you to like. I love unagidon (eel over rice) The kids were super surprised about that and other kids even liked it as well so we built some common ground.
Anyway despite the weird answers they gave we had a lot fun and I got to learn more about them as did they about me. I was happy to find out that a lot of the kids like anime and volleyball (my favorite sport!!!). Here's to more fun days!! I also had fried kabocha (pumpkin! another one of my favorites) today!! It was delicious <3 <3
Comments
Post a Comment