Check out this video: No, seriously, click on the link above before reading the rest of this post. Like many of the students I have shared this clip with, this video may have inspired in you a strong sense of the inherent injustice of stereotypes; negative stereotypes that lead African American children to reject a Black … Continue reading »
self-esteem
Writers — and parents: Show, don’t tell
One of the cardinal rules of writing is this: Show, Don’t Tell. The rule means that when one is trying to describe a character’s actions, a writer should avoid describing inner states when possible, relying instead on showing the character’s actions. You can think about it as if the writer’s job is to describe a … Continue reading »
Subtle stereotypes and their negative effects on targets
Long before the movie Avatar, the filmmaker James Cameron captured the nation’s imagination with The Terminator. By now, of course, the wonder of the premise has worn off– but at the time, the notion that a machine would come from the future to destroy the mother of the leader of the Resistance was so deliciously … Continue reading »