[I am following Anne Brooke‘s 2021 #52tagshannemade slow stitch challenge to make a little tag every week of the year – see them all here!] Anne had recently scored some lovely loot so this week, rather than focusing on a stitch, she wanted to use her goodies and make a tag with “something yummy”. I wasn’t sure how to translate that theme and mesh it with the thoughts that drove the week – they were not happy, yummy feelings. I came up with this:

It’s prettier than it could have been considering the thoughts were about how race and racism varies by culture and can be quite strong. That was the topic for the week, and I was seeing a pattern of discrimination that I do not experience in teaching in a normal setting. Racism is, of course, a problem in America, but few students own up to it. Because the demographics of China are quite a bit different (not nearly as diverse, at least for these students), my students were unaware of how racist their responses were, and at least one openly admitted his racism during discussion. Some of it was the simple “you don’t know what you don’t know” and I can’t fault them for the biases taught to them, but at the same time, it was very uncomfortable for me navigating that with the addition of cultural and linguistic barriers.

So anyway, I imagined that I planted a seed about how human differences are not so much biologically determined, just cultural really. And hopefully that will develop into a lovely garden of celebrating diversity rather than trying to weed it out.

I do enjoy the group of students; they are finally opening up more to the discussion sessions rather than sitting quietly or giggling out of embarassment. We have a great exchange where I teach them about culture in general then provide American examples, and in return, I receive Chinese examples. #666 🙂