Praxis (March 28th)

Today's lesson plan was focused on Micro Aggressions since it was a topic that we wanted to go more indepth with the week before but didn't have enough time. We sat in a circle and watched the video "I, too, am Havard" and I could see some head of the students nod and empathize with the students from Havard.

We finished the video and talk about our own experiences with micro agressions that eventually lead to the entire group of students dicussing the concept of light-skinned versus dark-skinned and beauty. After several stores about being commented on for being "pretty for a dark-skinned girl" from the girls in the group had provoked the other co-facilitators to ask the boys if they ever experienced a micro agression regarding the tone of their skin specifically. One, A.K., had his head held down the entire time and when we asked him about it, he spoke up and said "I hate when people do that." We questoned what he meant and he continued, "I just hate when people say things like that".

In our own class, Multicultural Education, we did skits. We talked about how we react to Micro Agressions. I feel with A.K. he feels almost defeated by this. We asked the stuents as a whole about how they reacted to those situations and what would be the best way to react and most of them explained its so much easier to just ignore it. But then there are feelings like A.K. who know it feels bad, but also agree with the idea of just letting it go. I'm not sure how I can insill a strength and willingness to fight back against this oppression in these students. I'm not sure what I can do for them that can change their minds about resisting these micro aggressions.