Reflection #5

Issues in the classroom

In class on November 16^th 2010 we discussed aboriginal issues in the classroom. We had a guest speaker come into the class and give us a presentation on aboriginal people, including a video on how aboriginal people feel. Following this presentation one of our fellow classmates gave a presentation continuing on the subject of aboriginal people. Although these presentations were interesting and indeed a good contribution to our course concepts, I still feel very uncomfortable discussing certain issues for possibilities of offending others.

For the first presentation we watched a video of aboriginals describing class situations in which they were offended. By all means the majority of comments made towards aboriginal people were very rude and uncalled for. Personally, I would have liked to see some positive situations discussed in the video as well. Once the video was done we were asked our thoughts and opinions on what we saw in the video. Not very many people spoke up in front of everyone and therefore we discussed our opinions in small groups, and then as a group to the class. This is where I felt very uncomfortable. No one wanted to offend people with our answers and when my group tried to express how we felt it was as if some people felt we thought this was an unimportant topic, which was definitely not the case. My opinion (which happened to be the same as the rest of my group) was that no matter what race, religion, language, or personal belief one has, everyone at some point in their life is going too be offended by what others have to say. We saw it as everyone has the right to their own opinion and that everyone also perceives things in different ways which may alter from the way something was meant. Personally, I have not had any education on aboriginals and as stated in my second reflection the 2010 winter Olympics was my first major exposure to aboriginal culture. As a result I don’t know much about aboriginals and have not made any comments or even asked any question concerning this topic as I don’t want to offend anyone. There was a misunderstanding in our class earlier in the semester of someone not having enough education on aboriginals and someone else perceiving the other students comment negatively, instead of understanding that this person simply did not know. In this situation I believe it was clear that the student was not aware natives had a government and immediately agreed/understood that they did when told they did. I may be wrong but what I got from this situation was that I needed to be very careful about expressing what I felt because not only may I offend someone when that’s not the intention but be confronted about it in an uncomfortable way or judged by others. After this situation I believe several students in the class did not feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and feeling towards certain subjects. To reduce these feelings and misunderstandings I believe it would be a good idea for not only education on aboriginals but other cultures as well to be implemented in the school system.

For the second presentation we watched several video clips. One in particular was a comedian (I believe Dave Chappelle) who was talking and making jokes about aboriginal people. During this video everyone was laughing in class (even those of aboriginal background) and that is where I was a little confused, seeing as we just had a presentation on comments that offended aboriginals.  I understand that this student was showing us how racial comments are even portrayed in the media but what I don’t understand is how it’s funny when a comedian make comments about aboriginals but a random person makes a comment it is offensive.

This is how I feel about class on November 16^th 2010. I still do not feel comfortable sharing my opinion on this issue but I am pleased to have witnessed these presentations and plan to do some of my own research on aboriginals so that i am more aware of their culture. I would also like to clarify I am not saying that the people spoken about in the video had the right to directly discriminate/offend aboriginals, I am just saying out loud that everyone has been or will be offend by other people in life and it is up to us to choose whether we will let it affect us or not.