Unpacking Stererotypes:
Red Cross PSA
Lesson Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Detect, reflect upon, and reject stereotypes that are present in our everyday lives
Learning Standards
- LfJ 11. Students will recognize stereotypes and relate to people as individuals rather than as representatives of groups.
- LfJ 12. Students will recognize unfairness at the individual level (e.g. biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g. discrimination).
- LfJ 13. Students will analyze the harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.
Learning Activities: If you have 15 minutes
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Greeting:
If you could have lunch with any celebrity, who would it be?
Reading:
Define a stereotype for your students prior to sharing the reading below.
“In our culture, there are SO many stereotypes and sources of misinformation about race. These stereotypes are so pervasive that they are in some ways like “smog.” Smog is air pollution that is ubiquitous and widespread across an entire community. We all just have to admit that we’ve all been smog breathers.” We’ve all been influenced by these ambient cultural stereotypes. If you live in a community with smog, you end up breathing smog sometimes.” --Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum
Ask Students:
- What does this quotation get you thinking about?
Initiative:
Question for students: What do you notice about this Red Cross poster?
Students should notice that the people labeled ‘cool’ in the poster are frequently White, and the people labeled ‘uncool’ in the poster are frequently people of color. It’s also pretty unclear WHY the two boys of color in the water are labeled ‘not cool.’
Information for teacher: This Red Cross poster was designed in 2014 and hung in public pools across the country
Ask Students:
- Why do you think this happened?
- Is there a problem here that needs to be addressed?
- What could be the impact of this poster?
Learning Activities (continued): If you have 45 minutes
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Initiative:
Introduce students to Patricia Devine’s Detect, Reflect, Reject method.
Have students try out each step on the Red Cross poster:
- Detect: What is the problem here?
- Reflect: Why is this stereotype showing up here? Who is it harming?
- Reject: What can we do to challenge this problematic stereotype?
Share how one person who saw this PSA hanging up in the YMCA pool Salida, Colorado went through these steps and got the PSA removed.
Ask Students:
- What is something you notice about the Red Cross’s apology statement? What do you think of the Red Cross’s plans for moving forward?
Learning Activities (continued): If you have 2 hours
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Initiative:
Share with students the Red Cross apology statement about the PSA.
Ask Students:
- What is something you notice about the Red Cross’s apology statement?
- What do you think of the Red Cross’s plans for moving forward?
Debrief:
- What did you like about today’s lesson?
- Did you learn anything new about yourself or anyone else?
- What could make it better?