Experience of Sexism or Homophobia Assignment

Assignment part A
Pick one of the following questions to discuss the content of the film a “Class Divided” and post a reply to at least 2 other students in the discussion post. You need to respond with at least one long paragraph.
1. What do you learn from the reaction of the students in the dominant role?
2. What do you learn from the reaction of the students in the subordinate role?
3. How do you think you would react in their situation?
4. What caused the kids to be so mean to one another? What would you say is the cause of racism?
5.How did things change once the kids roles were switched?

Assignment part B
We have learned in this class that, while humans do have biological variation, human biological variation isn’t accurately categorized by the races that we assign to people. The way we break people up into races is similar to how we might break people up into three “races” based on height (short people, medium people, and tall people); it does describe something biological about them, but the biological similarity of each height “race” doesn’t mean anything about similarity and difference for any biological feature other than height, and it doesn’t accurately reflect common ancestry.
That said, RACISM IS REAL, and there are significant biological effects of experiencing racism. Most of these impacts are related to chronic stress, and they are similar to the effects that sexism, homophobia, and transphobia have on the people who experience those things. The purpose of this discussion is to explore how the negative biological effects of racism come to be embodied.
In this discussion, share an experience you’ve had that illustrates how racism has negatively impacted you and made you feel anxious. If you don’t have an experience like this about race, you can share an experience of sexism or homophobia that has made you feel anxious. If you have not had experiences like this, wait until others have posted, and reply thoughtfully by recounting sometime that you had a similar experience without the racism and recount how you felt in that situation (either similarly or differently). If you don’t want to share an experience of racism, you don’t have to, but you do have to compare non-racist experiences to others’ sharing to receive credit. This whole discussion should be a thoughtful exploration of discrimination, privilege, and safe and unsafe spaces.

If you decide to share, Sharing = 10 points. or you can respond to a post (note: that you have to choose between sharing and responding. ) or you can reply. Each thoughtful reply = 10 points.
NOTE: This is meant to be a safe space for people to share their experiences. This is not a space for people to “play devil’s advocate” or to admonish others or tell them how things would have been different if they had acted differently. Confrontational or combative comments will be deleted and will not earn credit.