Class Discussion

In this class we brought in some real life events. We talked about the Olympics and related it to diversity. One thing that we talked about was Nathan Chen who is a free skater for the US. Chen skated and one the gold for the US. After this, China began to bash Chen and say very degrading remarks like "he's too white." China began to say that Chen disowned his country and that he is wrong for not holding to his Chinese culture. 

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We talked about this in class through students identity. It was very interesting to hear the story of Nathan Chen and then the story of Eileen who is a figure skater who underwent a very different experience. 

Eileen was born in California, but went to the olympics for China. She ended up falling and China went crazy on her. 

This was an interesting example of micro aggression which I wrote about earlier. In class we discussed how these were micro and macro aggressions. Anna described this as China saying "you're not who we want you to be." 

This hit the idea right on the head because there are not specific requirements to be a person, however China was arguing because they were upset in both cases. 

This idea also related to our last reading with the woman talking about how people said she didn't fit the "right type of brown." 

Overall, this discussion helped me think about my future as a teacher and what I can do to make sure that students understand that they can express their identity and that as a teacher I care about their identity.