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On the subject of racism / political correctness

 
 
 
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Playball40

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What do you think of this assignment? Do you agree with the mother who claims it's racist? Or with the teacher that says it was intentionally provocative to induce conversation? Is it age appropriate?
http://wfla.com/2015/10/15/hillsborough-school-board-stands-by-assignment-that-parent-calls-racist/

Kennel is talking about the assignment which as student which 9 of 15 people they would save. Some of the options include: a guy doctor, a girl doctor, a black guy, a white guy, a Hispanic woman, a minister, a rabbi, to name a few.
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Playball40 said:
What do you think of this assignment? Do you agree with the mother who claims it's racist? Or with the teacher that says it was intentionally provocative to induce conversation? Is it age appropriate?
http://wfla.com/2015/10/15/hillsborough-school-board-stands-by-assignment-that-parent-calls-racist/

Kennel is talking about the assignment which as student which 9 of 15 people they would save. Some of the options include: a guy doctor, a girl doctor, a black guy, a white guy, a Hispanic woman, a minister, a rabbi, to name a few.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Bad assignment.
 
Playball40 said:
What do you think of this assignment?
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I think it's a brilliant idea, a great way to get a good thought-provoking discussion to get young people to think critically about racial/ethnic/religious diversity and move ever-so-slightly outside of their comfort zone and make room in their minds for perspectives that differ from their own. I think the ability to think critically about complex issues and consider things you might not have seen before is a skill in depressingly short supply these days and the teacher was doing a service to those students by giving them this assignment.

Which is why that teacher is going to be reprimanded and fired, and why a small army of TV pundits and several posters here on this board are going to use this as a hook for another broadside of "lefty liberal leftist uses politically correct reverse racism to oppress white people" talking points.

Welcome to post-racial America. "Thinking while black" is no longer a felony, but "Critical thinking in public" is misdemeanor.
 
Crazy Eddie said:
Playball40 said:
What do you think of this assignment?
Click to expand...
I think it's a brilliant idea, a great way to get a good thought-provoking discussion to get young people to think critically about racial/ethnic/religious diversity and move ever-so-slightly outside of their comfort zone and make room in their minds for perspectives that differ from their own. I think the ability to think critically about complex issues and consider things you might not have seen before is a skill in depressingly short supply these days and the teacher was doing a service to those students by giving them this assignment.

Which is why that teacher is going to be reprimanded and fired, and why a small army of TV pundits and several posters here on this board are going to use this as a hook for another broadside of "lefty liberal leftist uses politically correct reverse racism to oppress white people" talking points.

Welcome to post-racial America. "Thinking while black" is no longer a felony, but "Critical thinking in public" is misdemeanor.
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The school board is actually defending the teacher and the assignment.
 
This is a stupid assignment that does appear designed to garner racism, but it doesn't HAVE to be looked at in a racist way. I say keep the two doctors since they are on a life boat and somebody will probably need medical care, shove out both the minister and rabbi as they are likely to drive divisiveness between religions, etc. Is there anybody there with survivalist skills? Any mechanics? Who will eat the most? Who is the most annoying? Is the Hispanic Woman hot? :p
 
Does anyone know what the results of the exercise were? How can anyone really speak on the merits of the activity without knowing if the activity actually achieved its goals? Has there been any additional fallout? Has anyone asked the students, although by now it is probably too late to get clean answers from the kids because they have seen their parents reactions.
 
Playball40 said:
Crazy Eddie said:
I think it's a brilliant idea, a great way to get a good thought-provoking discussion to get young people to think critically about racial/ethnic/religious diversity and move ever-so-slightly outside of their comfort zone and make room in their minds for perspectives that differ from their own. I think the ability to think critically about complex issues and consider things you might not have seen before is a skill in depressingly short supply these days and the teacher was doing a service to those students by giving them this assignment.

Which is why that teacher is going to be reprimanded and fired, and why a small army of TV pundits and several posters here on this board are going to use this as a hook for another broadside of "lefty liberal leftist uses politically correct reverse racism to oppress white people" talking points.

Welcome to post-racial America. "Thinking while black" is no longer a felony, but "Critical thinking in public" is misdemeanor.
Click to expand...
The school board is actually defending the teacher and the assignment.
Click to expand...

I saw that from the article.

Call me cynical, but I don't think this will end well.
 
Jolly_Penguin said:
This is a stupid assignment that does appear designed to garner racism, but it doesn't HAVE to be looked at in a racist way. I say keep the two doctors since they are on a life boat and somebody will probably need medical care, shove out both the minister and rabbi as they are likely to drive divisiveness between religions, etc. Is there anybody there with survivalist skills? Any mechanics? Who will eat the most? Who is the most annoying? Is the Hispanic Woman hot? :p
Click to expand...


Wait. Doctors of what? Chiropracty? Or are they PhDs in Elizabethan poetry? I need more details here first.
 
I'd like to know exactly what the true purpose of the exercise was. If it was simply "team building" as claimed, then I don't understand why gender, race and skin color needed to be included. The same results could have been achieved without that.

I do find the answers quite amusing on the one copy pictured. The people kicked off the life boat are: rabbi, minister, Donald Trump, ex-convict, Justin Beiber and Mr. Hagerman (the teacher).

I'm curious what the rest of the answers were.

https://mgtvwfla.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/lifeboat.jpg?w=600

Here is a description of a similar activity: http://philosophyforchildren.blogspot.com/2015/03/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens.html

Note that while age, gender and marital/parental status was included in the descriptions, race/ethnicity was not.

Makes me wonder if something else was going on in the classroom that the media reports are not discussing.
 
Keith&Co. said:
credoconsolans said:
Wait. Doctors of what?
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I think if I were assigning this, that would be the point of my exercise.

Is knowing their race enough information to decide who lives or dies?
Is it their level of education?
Gender?
Age?

Or do you need more information?
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I'd like to know more about their feelings on movies like Pacific Rim.
 
Nice Squirrel said:
Keith&Co. said:
I think if I were assigning this, that would be the point of my exercise.

Is knowing their race enough information to decide who lives or dies?
Is it their level of education?
Gender?
Age?

Or do you need more information?
Click to expand...

I'd like to know more about their feelings on movies like Pacific Rim.
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Well, yeah.
When I was 11, i'd have split the survivors by Star Trek/Star Wars fans.
 
I think this a terrible thing to give to an 11 year old. It also sounds like it was a home assignment and that means a parent, guardian or sibling probably had input to the answers anyway. I also think there is an agenda with this type of assignment.
 
Keith&Co. said:
credoconsolans said:
Wait. Doctors of what?
Click to expand...
I think if I were assigning this, that would be the point of my exercise.

Is knowing their race enough information to decide who lives or dies?
Is it their level of education?
Gender?
Age?

Or do you need more information?
Click to expand...

Same here.

Assumptions made about people can come back to bite you.
 
Jolly_Penguin said:
This is a stupid assignment that does appear designed to garner racism, but it doesn't HAVE to be looked at in a racist way. I say keep the two doctors since they are on a life boat and somebody will probably need medical care, shove out both the minister and rabbi as they are likely to drive divisiveness between religions, etc. Is there anybody there with survivalist skills? Any mechanics? Who will eat the most? Who is the most annoying? Is the Hispanic Woman hot? :p
Click to expand...

Yeah, the decisions should be based on value to the group, not the given labels.
 
I'd save the doctors and the women. The priest and rabbi are dead weight, so they get to drown and whine about it to their gods if they're right and I'm wrong about that stuff.

For the rest of the guys, any remaining spaces are available to the highest bidders.
 
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