Posts Tagged ‘children’
 
January 11, 2013 0

The Trouble With Make Me a “Stereotype”

Appli­ca­tions for smart­phones and tablets have become an emerg­ing seg­ment of the online and enter­tain­ment indus­try.  As with videos, blogs and social net­work­ing plat­forms which came before, Apps are now being cre­ated that some con­sider funny, but which  actu­ally cross the line from humor­ous to offen­sive.  Recent exam­ples include two free apps on Google called “Make Me Asian” and “Make Me Indian,” that allow users to edit pho­tos in ways which play on racist stereo­types. Users of the app can darken skin color, change eye shape to an “Asian” slant or add eth­nic acces­sories like an Amer­i­can Indian head­dress.

Young chil­dren often make fun of Asian Amer­i­can class­mates by pulling their eyes to make a slant or play “Indian,” com­plete with head­dress or a “war-cry.” As adults, this is the very kind of think­ing we try to chal­lenge in our chil­dren.  We want them to under­stand and respect dif­fer­ent cul­tures, not belit­tle or ridicule them or make assump­tions about all mem­bers of a group based on com­mon stereo­types.  We teach them that every­one has dif­fer­ent phys­i­cal fea­tures, qual­i­ties and char­ac­ter­is­tics that have noth­ing to do with the groups to which they belong.

Stereo­types make over­sim­pli­fied gen­er­al­iza­tions about peo­ple or groups with­out regard for indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences. The prob­lem is that these gen­er­al­iza­tions soon become beliefs about groups which form  the build­ing blocks for prej­u­dice and dis­crim­i­na­tion, fea­tures of life that have seri­ous impli­ca­tions for us all.  Apps like “Make Me Asian” and “Make Me Indian” and a score of oth­ers built on this con­cept play on per­ni­cious stereo­types that mar­gin­al­ize indi­vid­u­als and groups. Though the global com­mu­nity is racially and eth­ni­cally diverse, these kinds of apps pro­mote the kind of think­ing that being white is the norm and every­thing else is defined as “other.”

As a soci­ety, we spend much of our time inter­act­ing through our mobile devices, but when we choose so-called enter­tain­ment that rein­forces these kinds of stereo­types, we have to con­sider whether we might be con­tribut­ing to the per­pet­u­a­tion of the inci­vil­ity that lim­its everyone’s opportunities.

The Anti-Defamation League strives to remain vig­i­lant of emerg­ing issues in our dig­i­tal world and com­mu­ni­cates reg­u­larly with many of the major com­pa­nies on issues that are raised by the community.

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December 17, 2012 1

How Do We Talk to the Children?

The recent news of the shoot­ings of 20 young chil­dren and six adults at Sandy Hook Ele­men­tary School in New­town, Con­necti­cut has had a dev­as­tat­ing impact on both youth and adults across the coun­try. In the face of this sense­less vio­lence, many are at a loss to find the words to express the depth of their feel­ings. Despite our best efforts to pro­tect chil­dren from the details of such inci­dents, they are often more aware than we imag­ine of what is hap­pen­ing in the world around them. When fright­en­ing and vio­lent inci­dents occur, chil­dren and teens are likely to expe­ri­ence a range of emo­tions, includ­ing fear, con­fu­sion, sad­ness and anger that can man­i­fest in many dif­fer­ent ways.

To coun­ter­act fear and help chil­dren feel safe, par­ents, teach­ers and care­givers can pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for chil­dren to express how they feel and chan­nel their feel­ings into pos­i­tive actions. In order to pro­vide the reas­sur­ance and guid­ance they may need, it’s impor­tant for adults to real­ize the impact of these kinds of events on them per­son­ally and to come to terms with their own feel­ings.  Before talk­ing to your chil­dren, take time to process your own feel­ings and per­cep­tions with other adults.

Be alert to signs of upset in your chil­dren, which can include with­drawal and a lack of inter­est in engag­ing in activ­i­ties, exces­sive act­ing out, fear of going to school and other behav­iors that seem out of the ordinary, and pro­vide a quiet time for them to ask any ques­tions they may have.  Above all, reas­sure chil­dren in age-appropriate ways that they are safe. When talk­ing to preschool­ers, for exam­ple, your response can be sim­ple and direct: “I love you and I will always do every­thing I can to make you safe.”

Dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions like this can be an oppor­tu­nity to dis­cuss fam­ily and com­mu­nity val­ues, beliefs and tra­di­tions. You can find some help­ful guide­lines for talk­ing to chil­dren in the after­math of hate and vio­lence at:

http://www.adl.org/issue_education/Hate_and_violence.asp

http://www.adl.org/education/discussing_hate_spanish.pdf (Span­ish version)

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October 18, 2012 2

Egypt-Based Group Shows Children Preparing To Fight Zionists And Jews

An Egypt-based group affil­i­ated with rad­i­cal Mus­lim Broth­er­hood ide­o­logue, Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, has released a new video show­ing chil­dren being taught to fight and kill Israelis.

The video, released yes­ter­day by Al-Aqsa Trustees Move­ment, an orga­ni­za­tion that describes its mis­sion as “rais­ing new gen­er­a­tions to lib­er­ate Jerusalem,” was cre­ated to show the types of activ­i­ties orga­nized by the group’s Aqsa Child Committee.

The video depicts what appear to be kindergarten-aged chil­dren in Egypt angrily curs­ing, attack­ing and behead­ing card­board cutouts of Israeli sol­diers with Stars of David on their heads.

The Al-Aqsa Trustees Move­ment is headed by anti-Semite Salah Sul­tan, the head the of the Jerusalem com­mit­tee of the Inter­na­tional Union of Mus­lim Schol­ars, which was founded by al-Qaradawi. The Trustees Move­ment was founded, accord­ing Sul­tan, “to cre­ate a new gen­er­a­tion who will carry the trust of Al-Aqsa in the face of Jews…We hope that the young men and young women of this Ummah will join us.”

The video starts with a writ­ten intro­duc­tion stat­ing: “After the chil­dren learned about Al-Aqsa Mosque and what the Jews did to it, they went to kill the Zion­ists and lib­er­ate the Mosque.” The chil­dren are then shown engag­ing in a game where they attack human shaped card­board cutouts of Israeli sol­diers with Stars of David on their heads.

At the end of the video, one child is shown car­ry­ing the head of one of the card­board Israeli sol­dier and say­ing, “Look how the Zion­ist sol­dier ended.” A teacher then tells the chil­dren, “play kids, play,” and says “look how he tram­ples him,” refer­ring to one child who steps on one of the card­board sol­diers. Another teacher is heard say­ing “hit him, hit.”

Those inter­ested in join­ing the Al-Aqsa Trustees Move­ment are required to fill out an appli­ca­tion form and pledge alle­giance to the group’s pro­grams, accord­ing to its Face­book page. 200 appli­cants have appar­ently already been accepted, accord­ing to the page.

Accord­ing to Hager Al-Oshary, a mem­ber of the group’s Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee, the group has pre­vi­ously orga­nized activ­i­ties at Cairo University, including a rally to “remind the Arab Youth about their duty towards the Pales­tin­ian cause.”

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