In response to the senseless death of advocate Sandra Bland; author Aaryn Belfer offered his article How to be an Interrupter as a way to support those struggling with the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. In the article Belfer calls for allies in the fight against racism. He lists eleven different ways to help us get involved. We can all agree with Belfer when he claims that the worst thing a person can do is to do nothing. However, we can take that claim one step further by agreeing that the worst thing a person that belongs to a group of privilege can do is to do nothing. When we do nothing we are actually choosing to support the system of privilege. What we don’t do is just as important as what we do. We need to take responsibility
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In her article The Ethics of Close Reading: Close Encounters she compares our polarization, totalization, and projection of books to our encounters with others. According to Gallop’s theory, as we read we pick out those things that confirm our own prejudges and in doing so we instill those prejudges further into our belief system. However, when we use what Gallop refers to as “Close Reading” or “looking at what is actually on the page, reading the text itself…” we are listening with an open mind and when we are able to do that we challenge our preconceived ideas. Slow reading allows us to experience our encounters with others and observe those things that directly contradict our own prejudges and …show more content…
They help us to reduce the amount of processing our brains need to do when we meet people. Unfortunately, this can lead to social categorization or assuming a range of characteristics and abilities to an entire group which can lead to an “us and them” mentality. This happens when the “us” becomes the in-group and “them” becomes the out-group. This concurs with Gallops article stating that we categorize people as being the same as us (belonging to the in-group) or as being different from us (belonging to the out-group). Social identity theorist believe that members of the in-group will seek out negative aspect of others to enhance their self-image. We tend to exaggerate differences between groups just as we exaggerate similarities within
In her article The Ethics of Close Reading: Close Encounters she compares our polarization, totalization, and projection of books to our encounters with others. According to Gallop’s theory, as we read we pick out those things that confirm our own prejudges and in doing so we instill those prejudges further into our belief system. However, when we use what Gallop refers to as “Close Reading” or “looking at what is actually on the page, reading the text itself…” we are listening with an open mind and when we are able to do that we challenge our preconceived ideas. Slow reading allows us to experience our encounters with others and observe those things that directly contradict our own prejudges and …show more content…
They help us to reduce the amount of processing our brains need to do when we meet people. Unfortunately, this can lead to social categorization or assuming a range of characteristics and abilities to an entire group which can lead to an “us and them” mentality. This happens when the “us” becomes the in-group and “them” becomes the out-group. This concurs with Gallops article stating that we categorize people as being the same as us (belonging to the in-group) or as being different from us (belonging to the out-group). Social identity theorist believe that members of the in-group will seek out negative aspect of others to enhance their self-image. We tend to exaggerate differences between groups just as we exaggerate similarities within