Seite - 99 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

CHRIsTIAN (MANUAL) 99 Exercise: Prejudice situations This exercise is about becoming aware of the prejudices we have towards other peo- ple due to their belonging to/membership in a certain group (ethnic, social class, gender, profession etc.) and analyzing them in order to see their meaning and how they affect our behavior. In each situation, we must establish what kind of generali- zations we make and if there is any kind of prejudice or stereotype involved. As we do the exercise, we should think about what ‘pre-judgments’ the person could be bringing to the situation. We can then ask the group questions: “What kind of gen- eralizations and judgments are we expressing?”, ”What is our basis for this?”, “Are they positive or negative, or are there other possibilities?”, “How could our assess- ment affect the person we are assessing?” 1. A football coach has to pick a new team. The candidates are 12 boys and 8 girls. He only chooses the boys. 2. A school headmaster must choose someone to decorate the school hall for the upcoming end-of-course party. He only asks the female students to volunteer. 3. Your car breaks down. You see a police car approaching. You wave for it to stop and ask for help. 4. I can’t stand Jorge. He is really mean and whenever we go out he never pays for anything. He´s so mean, he seems Scottish. 5. I love Ngobo. He is a great dancer. Watching him dance is a great pleasure; you can tell he’s African. 6. It’s the first day of class and a new teacher has arrived. He starts explaining the first topic and all the students get their notebooks out and start writing down what he is saying. 7. A young person faints on the platform in the underground. The security guards take him outside and leave him on the sidewalk because he has long hair and his clothes are dirty. 8. A person faints in the street. People gather around. A passer-by asks the on- lookers to stand aside. He says he is a doctor. The onlookers stand aside and let the “doctor” handle the situation. Leading Idea 2: Good reasons The way we see the world, our beliefs, and what we think is good, correct, or adequate, all determine the way we behave and make decisions. However, we sometimes act with- out asking ourselves why we do something, or what our reasons are for acting the way we do. But even when we don’t identify the reasons, we always have reasons that justify, explain, or support our actions, and that is why asking ourselves what these reasons are can be so important. Identifying them and articulating them helps us understand why we act the way we do, and therefore allows us to then reflect on whether our actions are correct. It is important to consider the reasons for our actions, whether they are good or bad reasons, if they really justify or explain what we do, and whether our reasons are consistent with our beliefs. Or, on the contrary, we also must determine whether there is a certain inconsistency between what we think and what we do. Finally, it is interest- ing to work on the difference between reasons that support and justify our actions, and reasons that excuse our action (that is to say, distinguishing between authentic reasons and mere excuses).