Shawn Lees-Carr

Web Drop-In #2 Discrimination as the Root of Rights Violations

June 19, 2009

What Causes Evil, and Causes Us to do Evil to Each other?

Introduction: Why are people mean to each other? Why do people hate one another so much that they want to kill, torture, rape, maim and otherwise diminish and devalue their enemies?

Information – According to speakers at an international conference on human rights, the most powerful underlying influence in many human rights abuse situations is discrimination. Discrimination builds on the idea that one group or one type of person is more valuable than another, and therefore should be treated differently. It can take many different forms and range from impacting one person to generations and nations of people.

Question or activity to be completed: Many people believe that discrimination no longer exists and that everyone is treated equally. By examining and analyzing several charts measuring attitudes about discrimination, you will draw your own conclusions about discrimination in the United States and other countries. In a future activity you will examine more information that will help you determine whether or not discrimination remains a problem, especially in the United States.

PRE-Reading/Pre-Searching:

1. Project the black and white picture above or have students look at it on their screen. Either verbally or on paper, have students record everything they notice about the photograph.

· Think about the setting (when/where).

· Think about the mood.

· Think about the beliefs and ideas expressed.

· Think about what message is being sent.

· Think about why.

· Think about what motivated people to do this.

2. Ask each student to predict how Americans would answer the following statements. Students should estimate the percentage of citizens who would answer a certain way.

· How important is it for people of different races and ethnicities to be treated equally? Very important or not very important?

· Thinking about the course of your lifetime or your parents’ lifetime, would you say, compared to the past, people of different races and ethnicities are now treated much more equally, a little more equally, a little less equally, much less equally, or that there has been no real change?

· Do you think the government should make an effort to prevent discrimination based on a person’s race or ethnicity, or do you think the government should not be involved in this kind of thing?

· Do you think the government is doing enough in this regard or do you think it should do more?

· Do you think that employers should or should not be allowed to refuse to hire a qualified person because of the person’s race or ethnicity?

· Do you think the government has the responsibility to try to prevent employers from refusing to hire someone because of a person’s race or ethnicity or do you think the government should not be involved in this kind of thing?

SOURCE PAGE (may also click on the black and white photo in the pre-section): http://worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/btjusticehuman_rightsra/460.php?lb=bthr&pnt=460&nid=&id=amp;

This pdf below may be printed out and used for differentiated instruction or in case of a technology failure. It also may be helpful to cross-reference the print explanation with the charts.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/mar08/WPO_Race_Mar08_rpt.pdf

(pdf file with more information/analysis)

This pdf below may be printed out and used for differentiated instruction or in case of a technology failure. It also may be helpful to use when examing the exact breakdown of answers given by citizens of different countries.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/mar08/WPO_Race_Mar08_quaire.pdf

(pdf file with exact numbers for each category of answer for each country)

Activity: Click on the source site or the Black and White Photograph above. Examine each section of the study. Record the data using the chart below. Then think about what the data could be showing and what could be missing from the data. What’s being said by the graph? What is the “good” news and the “bad” news for each country? I have done the first box as an example.

QUESTION #1: How Important is it for people of different races and ethnicities be treated equally?

COUNTRIES	VERY IMPORTANT Important	Not Important	CONCLUSIONS/QUESTIONS
United States	96%	4%	Most people agree that we should treat everyone equally. But there is 4% that doesn’t agree. Why?
Highest: Mexico	99%	1%	Wow! Almost everyone agrees. I wonder if this is because of the many different cultures within Mexico? Or that they have diverse neighbors: US on one side.
Lowest: India	59%	41%	It seems that this country still harbors a lot of racism and doesn’t see people equally. This must mean that there are groups ion this country who are probably treated badly.

We’ll try to do this one together.

QUESTION #2: Should the Government Do More?

COUNTRIES	AGREEING	Opposite	CONCLUSIONS/QUESTIONS
United States
Highest:
Lowest:

Do this one with a Partner. Then set up charts like this on your own paper.

QUESTION #3:

COUTRIES	AGREEING	CONCLUSIONS/QUESTIONS
United States
Highest:
Lowest:

CLOSURE:

Examine your results and your comments.

1. What countries seem to have opinions more like the United States? Why do you think their ideas are similar?

2. What countries seem to have opinions that are very different? Why do you think their ideas are different?

3. Think about how American responded to these questions. Now reflect back on your predictions. Were all your predictions accurate?

If not, which ones were off?

Why do you think your prediction was different? What do you think caused people to answer differently than you expected?

4. Most of these questions dealt with what category of discrimination? What are some of the many different areas of discrimination that the survey could have asked about?

5. Most of these questions seemed to revolve around hiring and employment. What are some of the many different places and activities in which people can face discrimination?

STOP ~ WHOLE GROUP SHARE ~ DISCUSS ~ REASSIGN

What ideas did the whole group come up with for #4?

What ideas did the whole group come up with for #5?

What kinds of questions could we ask to find out people’s opinions about these types of discrimination?

6. Now, with your team, create a new survey of questions designed to measure people’s attitudes about a different type of discrimination that you have been assigned.