Can we overcome prejudice?

Before we jumped in to today's lesson, we had DEAR time and Ms. DeRousi came in to give your Morphology lesson. I'm going to say it again, please do not keep losing your charts. Ms. DeRousi should not have to make copies over and over again. 

As for today's lesson, we listened to a song by Billie Holiday called "Strange Fruit." What we learned is that even though the song is called "Strange Fruit," she's not talking about fruit at all. She sings, "Black bodies swaying in the Southern breeze. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees." The "fruit" that's hanging on the trees are black men and women. She's referring to all the lynchings that have been happening in the South. 

Billie Holiday was a famous black singer who sang for all-white clubs. But just because she was the star of the show and her name might have been up in lights, she STILL was not allowed to enter through the front doors. Today, Justin Bieber and Adele cannot enter through the front doors of their sold-out concerts because they would be mauled by fans. Back then, even though they might have had a sold out show, they were not allowed to enter through the front doors because they were black. White audiences saw these black performers as their entertainment, nothing more. With this song, Billie Holiday was trying to send out a message to her audience, and to even make them a bit uncomfortable. She was trying to show them her world is much different than theirs and they need to recognize what it is they're doing.

With the video of the Black Doll/White Doll Experiment, I hope you realized just how much prejudice still exists today. All of you get so comfortable with the term "back then," arguing that racism was a thing of the past. But just because we don't lynch people or have slavery, doesn't mean that prejudice doesn't exist. Write a response on the Discussion board on Schoology and keep this discussion going. I'm sure all of you have had experiences where you felt judged based on the color of your skin. Talk about it and talk about it with each other. 

Here are the videos if you want to take a look at them again:

Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit":

Black Doll/White Doll Experiment:

More Prejudice Experiments:

Brown Eye vs. Blue Eye Experiment:

I'll be posting the links to these videos on Schoology as well. I hope these videos have opened your eyes to how our world is today, and just how "far" we've progressed. 

Tomorrow, we'll get to acting Chapter 17.

DEETS:

In-class:

--Morphology

--DEAR

--"Strange Fruit"

--Black doll/white doll experiment

--Discussion

HW:

--Discussion post on Schoology