TKAM Quick Microaggression Video

Microaggressions--they're damn common. :( We just read To Kill a Mockingbird, and I wanted to connect it to the present, connect the issues more to the students. Our school in Iowa has muchly much a majority caucasian student body. Anyway, I came across this video with a couple of joggers who stop and chat. It gave us a chance to talk about the White guy's intentions--how he probably wasn't trying to insult her, but he was committed to "othering" her. 

I later showed it to one of my Asian students (so subtle, I know) from AP Lit and asked her if she thought it was appropriate for freshman after TKAM. She said she was worried that some might think it was funny for the wrong reasons. I told her that wasn't the reaction--from the moment he says (with emphasis), "Where are you FROM," some of the freshmen kind of gasped, knowing he'd crossed the line. 

In English 9 we talked about how when the students themselves are "messing" around with friends and making jokes about such things and think it's just funny, maybe they should think about it. It's probably funnier to one of them than the other. I then asked my freshman if I should have shown the video, and one said, "probably not." One of my few students of color in the room immediately said, "Show the video." So that made it worth it for all three classes.  

The Korean woman in the video eventually makes fun of the caucasian guy who had kept insisting that she tell him where she's from (San Diego)--she  talks loudly in a British (his ancestry) accent at the end. One younger boy said that she could have been nicer and "just explained" how it made her feel. I said, "Why should she have to?"

Anyway, I think the discussion with the freshmen was useful, and I had a great conversation with my girl from AP Lit--she was so helpful and interesting and forthcoming. She and I had been discussing Grapes of Wrath one-on-one for twenty minutes before I showed her the video. We talked about a feminist look at Steinbeck's text. Then I asked her if they were any people of other races in the novel at all. She said, "no," but that she thought that oppression was still effectively addressed--she thought Grapes "shows prejudice about where someone's from." Anyway, I'm glad I used the video, and here it is. The actors are great. The last part is supposed to be funny. Maybe not. After all, nobody laughed all day.

I don't know how to make the link live, but this will take you there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWynJkN5HbQ