Socialization Project (Mask)
UNITED WE’RE WHOLE, DIVIDED WE BREAK
To understand us, we must first understand society. But to understand society, we must first understand who we are. So begins and ends the never ending question wheel, forever spinning with unanswerable questions. Society isn’t perfect or anywhere close to it, because we still have problems, including racism. It may not be important to someone white, but it’s very important to someone who isn’t. To understand, you need to realize that everyone stereotypes and judges others. It’s human nature to compare ourselves to others. Racism brings up many issues and conflicts, and although the situation is much improved, it hasn’t completely disappeared.
Racism is still a societal problem in the U.S. It may not be voiced aloud as much as it used to be, but these feelings can’t disappear in a single generation. In the short music video, Black Men Ski, Stew, a black man, feels weird when he goes skiing in Aspen, Colorado. “Some kids say I’m race obsessed, the luxury of your opinion shows that you are blessed.” I’ve been skiing in Aspen, and I noticed that the majority of people there were white people. Another example is an experiment where black children were given a white doll and a black doll, then told to pick one to play with. Almost all the little kids picked the white doll, claiming it was the “good” one and the black doll was “bad.” I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to play with a black doll simply because I was taught that I’m white. So what’s the big deal with the dolls? The concern is that even though it’s only a small act of influenced prejudice, when starting at a young age it can amount to biases quickly. Although racism is a problem, for some the issue is more complex.
For the students at Tuscon, Arizona, High School, their problem is government interference. These students participate in Raza Studies classes; classes where the main focus is ethnicity and race history. The high school dropout rate was over 50%, but the Raza Studies gave the Mexican-American students a reason to stay in school. The students all felt included and accepted in these classes, so when the government tried to shut it down, (because they believed it was separation based on race/ethnicity) students led protests to keep the Raza Studies. I’ve never really had more than a few colored kids in my classes at school, and I’ve always been taught “white” history. I just took it for granted that that was what we learned: white history. After learning all about this, I realized examples of race separation in a Disney movie I’ve watched many times but never noticed before. In the Lion King 2, two different groups of lions (light colored and dark colored) are fighting when Kiara shows them that they are all the same and are all lions. Even though everything worked out in the end, the idea of race is still subtly taught through media to small children.
Racism is something that originally has to be taught, but whether done consciously or unconsciously, we are still making that choice. In the “Complexity of Identity,” Beverly Daniel Tatum says that “Choices made in adolescence ripple throughout the lifetime.” If this is true, than we had better start monitoring our children more closely. In the I Am activity, students are told to make a list of things they are (a female, shy, only child, etc). A recurring pattern noticed was that students of color often mentioned their race, while white students rarely mentioned being white. The conclusion drawn was that members of the dominant category seldom included it, while members of the non-dominant category (Jews, black, gay, etc.) mentioned it more often. After reading the “Complexity of Identity” article, I came to the realization that I’ve been subtly socialized as dominant from a very young age. When I was in China, because I have blond hair and blue eyes, all the Chinese locals wanted to get pictures with me and touch my hair. I went into a local village in Fiji when I was little, and I was the only white person, while they were all black. They accepted me anyway. I don’t remember what I thought, but I know I probably thought it weird that they were all black and I was white. I was only seven, but I still had semi-racist thoughts. It’s no coincidence that there’s been much subtle race socialization in our childhood. It all amounts to a problem in how we’re socialized.
Race and racism have a huge impact on our lives, whether we acknowledge it or not. White people have been given an unacknowledged privilege known as white privilege. At the same time we’re being given these “gifts,” our brains are filing away the records of receiving them so that we don’t notice the unfairness of white privilege. The article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” by Peggy McIntosh, defines this benefit; “White Privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, blank checks and pre-earned respect.” This sack of privileges is something whites often subconsciously count on daily. When I read this I realized on a personal level how true this was and I was shocked. I had no idea about all the privileges we receive regularly. Many white people believe racism doesn’t affect them because they are a dominant race. Admitting the problem can fix it, however the people who are overprivileged won’t admit it, because by doing so they are confessing guilt. Recognizing the unfair divisions of society emphasizes the problem and the need to change. Amongst the things we’ve been socialized to do, we’ve been socialized to deny the need for change.
My mask represents how I’ve been socialized through race, and my idea of socialization. I broke my mask into pieces because no one’s perfect, and neither is socialization, but together we’re whole. We’re pieced together through school, family, relatives, friends, church, parents of friends, work, and even strangers. I used duct tape because our society is held together by an insignificant and ugly bond. In appearance it is strong, but duct tape still has a tearing weakness. A piece from the brain is missing deliberately because not all of our pieces have been found yet, and because we think we know everything when we don’t. I’ve always been taught we have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we talk. My mask has only one ear because I don’t listen enough. One ear to show that we don’t listen to each other enough, or we can’t listen to each other. An open mouth because I’ve been socialized to speak out against wrong. I used skin tones to show that our society is different races patched together. The races I’ve tried to represent include Black, White, Albino, Asian, and Mexican. The colored lines separating each piece are the colors of the spectrum, because the color spectrum is unified and blends together into a pattern. My eyes are how I see the world’s good and evil. The world to symbolize perspective and understanding. I’ve been taught and shown to have perspective and to see through others’ eyes. A leaf because I’ve been raised to love nature, the outdoors, and all it offers. The red outline around the eyes shows the bad stereotypes applied to our vision.
We are born into a world full of judgement and unfair accusations. I know now all about unfair privileges and divided opinions. I used to think I wasn’t racist but I realize now that we all are to a degree, and it might not always be our fault. I still don’t understand what targets of racism go through, but I feel like I understand better now than before I learned all this. Just like gravity, human nature and the society it forms, are things we may think we understand, but never truly will. My mask exists to prove the cracks in our nation created by society. The saying is that United we Stand, Divided we Fall. But how long can a divided nation stand united?
Racism is still a societal problem in the U.S. It may not be voiced aloud as much as it used to be, but these feelings can’t disappear in a single generation. In the short music video, Black Men Ski, Stew, a black man, feels weird when he goes skiing in Aspen, Colorado. “Some kids say I’m race obsessed, the luxury of your opinion shows that you are blessed.” I’ve been skiing in Aspen, and I noticed that the majority of people there were white people. Another example is an experiment where black children were given a white doll and a black doll, then told to pick one to play with. Almost all the little kids picked the white doll, claiming it was the “good” one and the black doll was “bad.” I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to play with a black doll simply because I was taught that I’m white. So what’s the big deal with the dolls? The concern is that even though it’s only a small act of influenced prejudice, when starting at a young age it can amount to biases quickly. Although racism is a problem, for some the issue is more complex.
For the students at Tuscon, Arizona, High School, their problem is government interference. These students participate in Raza Studies classes; classes where the main focus is ethnicity and race history. The high school dropout rate was over 50%, but the Raza Studies gave the Mexican-American students a reason to stay in school. The students all felt included and accepted in these classes, so when the government tried to shut it down, (because they believed it was separation based on race/ethnicity) students led protests to keep the Raza Studies. I’ve never really had more than a few colored kids in my classes at school, and I’ve always been taught “white” history. I just took it for granted that that was what we learned: white history. After learning all about this, I realized examples of race separation in a Disney movie I’ve watched many times but never noticed before. In the Lion King 2, two different groups of lions (light colored and dark colored) are fighting when Kiara shows them that they are all the same and are all lions. Even though everything worked out in the end, the idea of race is still subtly taught through media to small children.
Racism is something that originally has to be taught, but whether done consciously or unconsciously, we are still making that choice. In the “Complexity of Identity,” Beverly Daniel Tatum says that “Choices made in adolescence ripple throughout the lifetime.” If this is true, than we had better start monitoring our children more closely. In the I Am activity, students are told to make a list of things they are (a female, shy, only child, etc). A recurring pattern noticed was that students of color often mentioned their race, while white students rarely mentioned being white. The conclusion drawn was that members of the dominant category seldom included it, while members of the non-dominant category (Jews, black, gay, etc.) mentioned it more often. After reading the “Complexity of Identity” article, I came to the realization that I’ve been subtly socialized as dominant from a very young age. When I was in China, because I have blond hair and blue eyes, all the Chinese locals wanted to get pictures with me and touch my hair. I went into a local village in Fiji when I was little, and I was the only white person, while they were all black. They accepted me anyway. I don’t remember what I thought, but I know I probably thought it weird that they were all black and I was white. I was only seven, but I still had semi-racist thoughts. It’s no coincidence that there’s been much subtle race socialization in our childhood. It all amounts to a problem in how we’re socialized.
Race and racism have a huge impact on our lives, whether we acknowledge it or not. White people have been given an unacknowledged privilege known as white privilege. At the same time we’re being given these “gifts,” our brains are filing away the records of receiving them so that we don’t notice the unfairness of white privilege. The article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” by Peggy McIntosh, defines this benefit; “White Privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, blank checks and pre-earned respect.” This sack of privileges is something whites often subconsciously count on daily. When I read this I realized on a personal level how true this was and I was shocked. I had no idea about all the privileges we receive regularly. Many white people believe racism doesn’t affect them because they are a dominant race. Admitting the problem can fix it, however the people who are overprivileged won’t admit it, because by doing so they are confessing guilt. Recognizing the unfair divisions of society emphasizes the problem and the need to change. Amongst the things we’ve been socialized to do, we’ve been socialized to deny the need for change.
My mask represents how I’ve been socialized through race, and my idea of socialization. I broke my mask into pieces because no one’s perfect, and neither is socialization, but together we’re whole. We’re pieced together through school, family, relatives, friends, church, parents of friends, work, and even strangers. I used duct tape because our society is held together by an insignificant and ugly bond. In appearance it is strong, but duct tape still has a tearing weakness. A piece from the brain is missing deliberately because not all of our pieces have been found yet, and because we think we know everything when we don’t. I’ve always been taught we have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we talk. My mask has only one ear because I don’t listen enough. One ear to show that we don’t listen to each other enough, or we can’t listen to each other. An open mouth because I’ve been socialized to speak out against wrong. I used skin tones to show that our society is different races patched together. The races I’ve tried to represent include Black, White, Albino, Asian, and Mexican. The colored lines separating each piece are the colors of the spectrum, because the color spectrum is unified and blends together into a pattern. My eyes are how I see the world’s good and evil. The world to symbolize perspective and understanding. I’ve been taught and shown to have perspective and to see through others’ eyes. A leaf because I’ve been raised to love nature, the outdoors, and all it offers. The red outline around the eyes shows the bad stereotypes applied to our vision.
We are born into a world full of judgement and unfair accusations. I know now all about unfair privileges and divided opinions. I used to think I wasn’t racist but I realize now that we all are to a degree, and it might not always be our fault. I still don’t understand what targets of racism go through, but I feel like I understand better now than before I learned all this. Just like gravity, human nature and the society it forms, are things we may think we understand, but never truly will. My mask exists to prove the cracks in our nation created by society. The saying is that United we Stand, Divided we Fall. But how long can a divided nation stand united?
MASK PROJECT REFLECTION
1. Project based learning is different in many ways from what I experienced in middle school. I went to Miller for middle school, which is a public school. When we did projects mostly we would either have to do oral presentations in front of a class or look at classmates projects in a hallway or on tables. Parents and others did not usually come to these. In 6th grade we had to do science fair. I was picked to go to regional science fair at the fairgrounds and that was similar to project based learning. Often the material we were taught wasn’t as bold as this because teachers didn’t want to offend anyone. With this project the content was really shocking and eye-opening.
2. Next project I will try to work more on perspective. I think I need to work on it because in the context of the project, I’m white and privileged so I don’t really know how it feels like to be in the non-dominant category. If I can get better perspective it will make an argument or point I’m trying to make stronger because the idea has been backed up with evidence.
3. My mask turned out well despite my complaining. I’m really proud of it and how I took an idea and stuck with it. Many people told me it wasn’t going to work and I was just going to destroy my mask and have to start over. I didn’t listen and continued to aim for my idea. I cut up my mask even when people warned me I couldn’t put it back together again. Then I put it “together” again. I’m proud of coming up with an idea no one else was attempting and ignoring comments about it, then succeeding.
4. There was no one section of my essay I liked best, so instead I’ll quote a few sentences from all the paragraphs. First I’m proud of my title, United we’re Whole, Divided we Break, because it’s kind of a play on words with the saying United we Stand, Divided we Fall, and my mask being broken. Then I like parts of my first paragraph because I think I used some interesting ideas: “To understand us, we must first understand society. But to understand society, we must first understand who we are. So begins and ends the never ending question wheel, forever spinning with unanswerable questions.” The next sentences I like are from my mask paragraph. I like this sentence because I think it has an important message: “I used duct tape because our society is held together by an insignificant and ugly bond. In appearance it is strong, but duct tape still has a tearing weakness.” This one makes people think to get the deeper meaning. “The red outline around the eyes shows the negative stereotypes applied to our vision.” My last few sentences in my essay I probably like the best. I’m proud of them because i think they are good meaningful sentences. They leave readers with a message to think about: “Just like gravity, human nature and the society it forms, are things we may think we understand, but never truly will. My mask exists to prove the cracks in our nation created by society. The saying is that United we Stand, Divided we Fall. But how long can a divided nation stand united?”
5. I want to remember what I learned in this project. I want to remember the new perspective and understanding I got when I learned about white privilege and the I Am activity. I don’t want to forget the divisions we have in society, because if I remember them I can make others remember too.
2. Next project I will try to work more on perspective. I think I need to work on it because in the context of the project, I’m white and privileged so I don’t really know how it feels like to be in the non-dominant category. If I can get better perspective it will make an argument or point I’m trying to make stronger because the idea has been backed up with evidence.
3. My mask turned out well despite my complaining. I’m really proud of it and how I took an idea and stuck with it. Many people told me it wasn’t going to work and I was just going to destroy my mask and have to start over. I didn’t listen and continued to aim for my idea. I cut up my mask even when people warned me I couldn’t put it back together again. Then I put it “together” again. I’m proud of coming up with an idea no one else was attempting and ignoring comments about it, then succeeding.
4. There was no one section of my essay I liked best, so instead I’ll quote a few sentences from all the paragraphs. First I’m proud of my title, United we’re Whole, Divided we Break, because it’s kind of a play on words with the saying United we Stand, Divided we Fall, and my mask being broken. Then I like parts of my first paragraph because I think I used some interesting ideas: “To understand us, we must first understand society. But to understand society, we must first understand who we are. So begins and ends the never ending question wheel, forever spinning with unanswerable questions.” The next sentences I like are from my mask paragraph. I like this sentence because I think it has an important message: “I used duct tape because our society is held together by an insignificant and ugly bond. In appearance it is strong, but duct tape still has a tearing weakness.” This one makes people think to get the deeper meaning. “The red outline around the eyes shows the negative stereotypes applied to our vision.” My last few sentences in my essay I probably like the best. I’m proud of them because i think they are good meaningful sentences. They leave readers with a message to think about: “Just like gravity, human nature and the society it forms, are things we may think we understand, but never truly will. My mask exists to prove the cracks in our nation created by society. The saying is that United we Stand, Divided we Fall. But how long can a divided nation stand united?”
5. I want to remember what I learned in this project. I want to remember the new perspective and understanding I got when I learned about white privilege and the I Am activity. I don’t want to forget the divisions we have in society, because if I remember them I can make others remember too.