http://www.spirituality.ucla.edu/newsletter_new/current_issue_3.htm

“I Have a Dream” Speech

RESOURCES

The Seattle Times has developed an excellent website that communicates the life and vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. With resources for students, speeches, etc this is an excellent place to start.

The King Institute at Stanford University seeks to ensure that King’s ideas and ideals will benefit future generations. The Institute’s endowment supports research and educational programs that contribute to public understanding of King’s life and of the movements inspired by his message of peace with social justice.

Scholastic articles and resources for Martin Luther King, Jr and African American histroy provide valuable resources for teaching and instruction for all kinds of students. From articles, to biographical information, to plays, a helpful guide.

Rationale:
The purpose of this exercise is to teach about advantages and disadvantages in our lives and the effects they have on opportunities and successes. This exercise can also be used to enhance understanding about affirmative action.

Many people believe that the reason a person is poor or rich is principally related to a person’s character. (Poor people are lazy and stupid. Rich people get rich because they are smart and work hard.) This belief in the equality of people in the U.S. discounts or ignores the fact that most white people have many advantages and opportunities which they take for granted. Because of this system of white privilege which was begun centuries ago, United States citizens are not playing on the proverbial level playing field. One of the underlying beliefs that is fostered by the principle of individualism taught in the United States is that, since the percentage of African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans in poverty is much greater than for white ethnic groups, people of color deserve their fate. They are blamed for their poverty and victimization. It is quite common in prejudice awareness workshops for white people to assume they have started on a level playing field with people of color. They believe, as in the story of Horatio Alger, that one’s own abilities and superiority earn wealth and success. Yet unemployment is so much a part of the economic system in which we live, as well as competition for jobs, education, benefits and limited resources, that “success” often depends on external factors. These external factors, such as informal rules, often provide whites with competitive advantages.

One should not misrepresent the importance of taking responsibility for one’s own life and the importance of struggling for a better world and a better life. Simply recognizing oneself as a victim is often not productive. However, it is important to understand that for people of color to blame themselves and/or be blamed by whites for their victim status fosters a sense of inferiority and powerlessness which can lead to hopelessness.[1]

1 “Teaching Whites About Racism”

Requirements

Materials (for facilitator only): copy of Horatio Alger questions

Time: 45-60 minutes

Space: a room large enough to accommodate the participants standing shoulder to shoulder in a single line.

Number of Participants: any number (restricted by room size)

Age level: adult

Directions

1. Instruct participants to form a line in the middle of the room and hold the hand of the person next to them.

2. Indicate that you will read a list. As a category is identified to which a participant belongs, he or she will either step forward or backward or stay stationary as appropriate.

3. Instruct participants to keep holding hands until it is no longer possible. When a person gets too far away, participants will have to let go of each others’ hands.

a. All those whose parent or parents have completed college take one step forward.

b. All those who have a parent who never completed high school, take one step back.

c. All those who went to a private school, take one step forward.

d. All those who were raised in a community where the vast majority of police, politicians and government workers were not of their ethnic or racial group, take one step back.

e. All those who commonly see people of their race or ethnicity as heroes or heroines on television programs or movies, take one step forward.

f. All those who commonly see people of their race or ethnicity on television or movies in roles you consider degrading, take one step back.

g. All those who come from racial or ethnic groups who have ever been considered by scientists as “inferior,” take one step back.

h. All those who have ever been harassed by the police because of their ethnicity or race, take one step back.

i. All those whose ancestors were slaves in the U.S., take one step back.

j. All those who have ancestors who, because of their race, religion or ethnicity, were denied voting rights, citizenship, had to drink from separate water fountains, ride in the back of the bus, use separate entrances to buildings, separate restrooms, were denied access to clubs, jobs, restaurants, were precluded from buying property in certain neighborhoods, take one step back.

k. All those who can walk into a store without having clerks assume by your appearance that you are going to steal something, take one step forward.

l. All those whose parents spoke English as a first language, take one step forward.

m. All those who have never been told that someone hated them because of their race, ethnic group, religion or sexual orientation, take one step forward.

n. All those who have read about history of their ancestors in history books provided by their K-12 school, take one step forward.

o. All those who have ever been denied a job because of their race, ethnic group, religion or gender, take one step backward .

p. All those who were raised in homes with libraries of at least children’s books and some adult books, take one step forward.

q. All those who were raised in homes where the newspaper was read daily, take one step forward.

r. All those who have vacationed in a foreign country, take one step forward.

s. All those who have been taken to art galleries or museums by their parents, take one step forward.

t. All those who have an immediate family member who is a doctor or lawyer, take one step forward.

u. All those who went to or currently attend a school where the majority of the teachers are of your same race or ethnicity, take one step forward.

v. All those whose ancestors lost a war with the U.S. and whose land was made part of the U.S., take one step back.

4. Say: “Now from wherever you are in the room, race to the wall you are facing when I say “go.”

5. In debriefing this exercise, the facilitator can elicit responses from the group about the following questions:

a. What did this exercise teach you?

b. What is the point of this activity?

c. What does this have to do with prejudice?

d. Do we all start off equal in life?

e. What does holding hands, then becoming so distant that you can’t hold hands anymore, represent?

f. Is it possible to be the fastest runner and still lose the race?

09-28-2007 By 2050, Hispanics will represent 24.4% of our population, Asians will make up 8% and African Americans will represent 14.6% of our overall population.  (2000 U. S. Census data)

The Educational Testing Service suggests that the nation’s undergraduate population will expand by 2.6 million students by 2015, 2 million of which will be students of color.

All racial and ethnic barriers have been removed in Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

College students are racially polarized on college campuses.

The Minority Ministry Fund helps CCO to create true community on college campuses among all races and ethnic groups by placing campus ministers from various races and ethnicities on college campuses.

The Minority Ministry Fund helps CCO to train campus ministers to practice racial reconciliation techniques on college campuses.

The Minority Ministry Fund helps the CCO to train student leaders who are intentionally building relationships with students from other races and ethnicities.

Ethnic-Specific
This ministry is dedicated to meeting the needs of one specific racial and ethnic minority group. (This group can have some racial and ethnic diversity, but this is not central to the design of the ministry.)

Key Values:
1. Passion for seeing the gospel advance within a specific racial and ethnic minority group.

2. Knowledge of important issues and values affecting a specific group, their history and a sense of their future.

Exploratory
This ministry is committed to exploring the experiences of people of other cultures for the purpose of gaining a greater understanding of their socio-cultural context and a better ability to relate to them individually and collectively.

Key Values:
1. An openness that allows past held stereotypes and misperceptions to be challenged.

2. A desire for knowledge of important issues and values affecting people of other cultures.

Bridge-Building
This ministry is committed to building bridges to populations that are not represented (or are under-represented) in their own ranks. This ministry begins to have dialogue with individuals and representative organizations as well as opening the door to experiential learning.

Key Values:
1. A willingness to be uncomfortable.

2. A sense of adventure.

Integrationist
This ministry seeks to integrate individuals of differing ethnic and racial make-ups into an existing ministry for the purpose of fellowship, friendship and shared learning.

Key Values:
1. Persistence!

2. Intentional relationship development.

Reconciled
This ministry sees racial and ethnic diversity as central to accomplishing its mission and seeks to develop leaders of all races and ethnicities (or at least the ethnicities present) who are committed to cross-cultural ministry and living, and also to actively address social injustices experienced by specific racial and ethnic groups.

Key Values:
1. Trust and ongoing open and purposeful dialogue.

2. A commitment to social action.

2. Take your education into your own hands, take initiative—begin reading books, magazines, journals and so on that deal with current events from the perspective of people of different races, ethnicities, cultures and nationalities; do the same with Web sites, movies, newspapers, music, public forums, conferences, seminars and personal conversations.

3. Seek out someone from whom to learn—books and things can be a slick diversion from true transformation which God usually directs through interaction with a person, like iron sharpening iron. Relationships are the ultimate objective, not merely knowledge; take the posture of “learner” and “follower,” not “teacher” and “leader.”

4. “Submit” yourself to the hands of service providers of a different race and/or ethnicity than your own. Choose a black doctor for a check up, an Asian dentist for a cleaning, a Latino auto mechanic for a tune-up, and so on. Many racial/ethnic minorities in this society don’t have a choice but to submit their intimate, private “concerns” to white male and female gynecologists, heart specialists, urologists, opticians, pediatricians, attorneys, mechanics, mammogram specialists—often times desiring otherwise. For many women (and their husbands), the prospect of an examining male specialist is very uncomfortable—imagine the added factor of race and racial distrust in the mix. Yet many minorities learn to trust whites in such vulnerable matters. There’s a world of insight to gain from whites voluntarily doing the same (although it’s relatively unheard of).

5. Be willing to put yourself in “minority-status” situations, socially and culturally. Go to places, events, activities and functions and/or become a member or regular visitor somewhere where you can be exposed to the cultural and social nuances of people of another race and/or ethnicity. Often, if we do make such commitments, we’ll do so with such a large group of “our own” so as to offset any feelings of being socially and culturally marginalized, like hiding in a group within a group. Oftentimes, minorities such as blacks or Asians can’t hide even if they try; their conspicuous features make them targets for any staring or glaring looks when in different social contexts. This can be a great learning experience if you stick it out as an ongoing practice, not just a momentary commitment like going on a two-week mission trip abroad. Often for whites, this is such an unfamiliar experience in itself, let alone doing so for an indefinitely long period of time. Great insight can be gained into and sympathy for the psyche of being a racial/ethnic minority.

6. Keep a detailed journal of your experiences, feelings and lessons—determine which experiences you’ll establish as ongoing lifestyle practices. Remember, these experiments aren’t for you to complete a project “on” someone else, nor is it merely to gain an impressive body of knowledge or an impressive portfolio of experiences to impress your “culturally illiterate” friends. This is solely for the purpose of transforming your life. Allow your mentor to counsel you and pray with you about your decisions.