We started off the session with an exercise - imagine a police officer, a doctor, a nurse, a criminal, a fire fighter, a family, a teacher, a basketball player, a boy, a girl, and more. When we compared similarities and differences, to our surprise, almost all of us had drawn the same family: a mother, father, and children who look like them. Almost all of us had imagined male police officers, fire fighters, and criminals. Almost all of us had imagined female teachers, nurses, and nannies. Several of us imagined only able-bodied people (no wheelchairs, glasses, etc.). And we did it all without having been told to imagine this way. After comparing, we pondered what would an alien species, whose only exposure to humans was in the form of these imaginings, assume about the human race. We then extended the metaphor into the fact that we were, at one point, naive to all these messages in our very beginnings - we WERE aliens to this way of thinking at one point. We then analyzed where we got these messages. Clearly, everyone knew that men can be nurses, children do not always look like their parents, crimes can be committed by people in business clothes, etc. And yet, here we were, so clear on what society has taught us who these people are. We learned about the cycle of oppression, where stereotypes can become prejudice, then discrimination, then oppression, then internalized oppression/dominance. Finally, we discussed ways we can interrupt the cycle of oppression so that we, the people around us, and future generations can get beyond societal messages of what we should believe about one another.

1. The Trouble with Sameness
3rd - 5th Grades
Moses Brown School

2. Picture a…
close your eyes and quickly visualize what comes
to mind when you think of the following:
• Family • Basketball Player
• Police Officer • Singer
• House Cleaner • Model
• Fire Fighter • Criminal
• Babysitter/Nanny • Dancer
• Mechanic • Construction Worker
• Doctor • Lawyer
• Teacher • Receptionist
• Garbage Picker-Upper • Postal Worker
• Scientist • Nurse

3. Let’s compare!
• What similarities do you see?
• Are there people who can be called these
terms but DON’T look like the pictures?
What do these people have in common?
• Why do you think most of us thought of
the same kinds of people?
• If you were an alien and saw ONLY these
images in our heads, what would you
believe to be to be true about humans?

4. Details, Details
• Turn to nearby neighbors and talk about all
the things you have been told, what you
have seen, or what you have read about
what girls are, what they like, what they
don’t like, what activities do they do, what
they wear, what they become when they
grow up, etc.

5. Details, Details
• Turn to nearby neighbors and talk about all
the things you have been told, what you
have seen, or what you have read about
what boys are, what they like, what they
don’t like, what activities do they do, what
they wear, what they become when they
grow up, etc.

6. How Did We Get There
From Here?

7. Could it Happen to Me?
• If I have an opinion about someone because of my
experience of with them (their beliefs, their actions,
etc.), then I have a preference or bias.
• If I have an opinion about someone because of their
group identity (their race, gender, how much money
they have, etc.), then I am prejudiced.
• If I treat others less fairly because of their group
identity (their race, gender, how much money they
have, etc.), I am discriminating.
• If there is a general social practice in institutions
(laws, schools, churches, etc.), then there is
institutional -isms at work (racism, classism,
heterosexism, etc.).

8. What are some of the isms?
•Racism: Discrimination or prejudice based on race, and the power
to enforce it.
•Classism: Discrimination or prejudice based on actual or perceived
socioeconomic class, and the power to enforce it.
•Sexism: Discrimination or prejudice based on gender, and the
power to enforce it.
•Heterosexism: Discrimination or prejudice based on actual or
perceived sexual orientation, and the power to enforce it.
•Ableism: Discrimination or prejudice based on ability, and the
power to enforce it.
•Ageism: Discrimination or prejudice based on age, and the power
to enforce it.
•Ethnocentrism: Discrimination or prejudice based on ethnicity,
and the power to enforce it.
•Christiancentrism: Discrimination or prejudice based on religion,
and the power to enforce it

9. Are all isms bad?
•Skepticism: belief that true knowledge is
always uncertain
•Feminism: Advocating for women’s rights
because they are equal to men socially,
politically, intellectually, etc.
•Egalitarianism: belief that humans ought to
be equal in rights and privileges
•Individualism: belief that individual interests
and rights are very important
•Optimism: belief that we live in the best of all
possible worlds

10. So the “bad” isms are…
PREJUDICE
plus
the POWER
to enforce it

11. How Do We Stop It?
ALLY
SH IP
!!!

12. How Will I Be an Ally?
• Turn to nearby neighbors and brainstorm
ways to not force boys and girls to be what
stereotypes tell them to be. If someone
else is pressuring people, what could you
say?

13. Have a Great Day!