When the Bough Breaks: Pre-viewing Activity

For class we will be viewing the film “When the Bough Breaks” that elaborates on internalized racism and its effects on the body.

YOUR TASK: Please watch this video OR you can choose to read the author’s article HERE. (Or you may select to do both).  After viewing (or reading), please leave your brief comment on the material below.

 

30 thoughts on “When the Bough Breaks: Pre-viewing Activity

  1. I remember, that I have read this article before and already answered (but maybe I was wrong, so i m going to repeat the idea of my post). It was a nice article that on the example of two pots of pink and red flowers showed how the attitude and biases of the gardener affected the growth of those flowers. The red ones, with proper care, watering and good soil were growing fast, abundant and beautiful. And the pink ones, were left almost without care and in old soil were weak and unattractive. The conclusion of the article was that there were no differences (or potential) in the pink and red flowers, it was care of the gardener that affected their development (growing). Every flower (every human being) has a right to get equal care, education, love, etc to grow in his/her full potential and enjoy the life.

  2. The author basically described what racism is, and separated into 3 categories. Institutionalized racism may have decreased, but that is only for those that have actually reported it. It might still be in play in other places of the world, where it’s treated like a normal day (unfortunately). The other 2 is kind of something that can’t be controlled. The sad part is I don’t really see racism stopping. People are always entitled to their opinions and will always do what they do. Whether it is out of fear, misunderstanding, pride/ego; it all boils down to how people treat each other. This article is useful in that it explains the categories of these racism, even though some or most of us has already experienced or has knowledge about it; we probably didn’t know it was categorized as such. It’s good to spread awareness, but I don’t think it would really do much, especially if people only wish to stay in their box/world and refuse to acknowledge things outside of their circle.

    -Repost from different section-

  3. I think the author did a good job expressing the different views of racism. Internalized racism is one of the levels that stuck out to me the most. This form of racism is just basically saying you accept defeat, there’s nothing you can do to change the injustice or stereotype of your race; you accept your role. I believe this is the most dangerous levels of racism because this doesn’t allow people to live their best not to the world but to themselves. If you don’t feel highly of yourself, you’re gonna believe everyone in your race is just as “inadequate” as you are. You believe to hate yourself and others who look like you; so you’re harsh on not just them but yourself also. That isn’t a life I would want to live.

  4. In Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale, Dr. Jones is informing the reader that racism is separated into 3 categories. The author explains each category by referring them as flowers from a garden. Institutionalized racism is mentioned as a gardener’s preference of red flowers over pink flowers. Dr. Jones states that in the U.S the gardener is the government, and I have to agree with her because in some occasions people with white skin color have more opportunities to succeed than people with a darker skin color. Most people with a lighter skin color have grown on in a clean environment without violence, a different access of education and better opportunities for finding good jobs. People with a darker skin, or poor people are being separated from those with white skin color because they are not being well prepare on education. Just like the pink flower the poor are struggling to grow, to become successful, they live on an environment where they face scarcity of food and job opportunities and the government is not trying hard to help them. In Personally mediated racism people believe that base on their appearance someone could be a criminal or someone who would harm you and others like people we see on the streets and on the trains asking for help are seen as people who are not willing to work, when in reality we don’t know the problems they faced and how they ended up being that way.

  5. I also remember doing this assignment before. I’ll repost my answer.

    Racism is a serious problem and the way the author broke down the three levels of racism gave me a better understanding about it. I think that using the example of the gardener was a great way to illustrate how racism works. If a person has personally mediated racism, they will already have a preference on a particular race. So treatment given will not be equal as in the case of the flowers. The reason why the pink flowers didn’t grow strong and beautiful was because of the environment (poor soil) and not because something was wrong with them. Any type of flower in that same environment wouldn’t have a chance to grow strong and beautiful not even the red flowers.
    Knowing how racism works in each level could maybe help find a solution to this terrible problem. Racism has to be cut in all three levels for there to be progress. Eliminating it in one will not work and everyone needs to be on the same page starting from the gardener (person in power, government).

  6. After reading the article and watching the video, I must say that I am confused. Race is not an interesting topic for me. In my religion, we are taught that all human beings are same and no one has priority on each other based on their colors and family background. So whenever I read or watch such type of content, I cannot digest it easily.
    In the article, the author talks about 3 levels of race and this approach has risen a lot of questions in my mind. If we look at 3 levels of race, does not it boost up the chances of racism and discrimination? I am from a country where we never talk about race therefore, I do not have much to expand on this topic.

  7. I thought this video was very interesting especially with the analogy that Dr. Jones uses with the gardener. I agree that if the environment you start in is bad then a person may be more likely to turn out to live a life of stress and internalized racism. I think that mostly these days internalized racism is what occurs most because of someones race that they think they must live a certain way and there is no way to change that because of their race but in many situations that is an incorrect and stereotyped way of thinking about ones self. I also think that personally mediated racism occurs more often these days than it should which also could effect a persons health in a negative way. This type of racism can make a person think badly of themselves because of another persons words and it can lead to stress and other health problems. I think racism should stop in this world because it is a socially constructed thing that leads to the opposite of peace in the world.

  8. The author expressed racism in a very interesting manner. The way she represented the racism and how it works using the Gardeners mechanism was great. How the Gardener plotted the red roses she loved in good soil, treated and took good care of it. While she planted the pink roses in the old soil shows her difference and discrimination towards two plants. Those two plants which had the same potential and quality to nourish, but pink flower could not due to the discrimination. This is similar with our society today . Each and every individual has their own quality and ability to flourish. However, we are blinded by the so called racism which categorizes each individual by the race.

  9. The author expressed racism in a very interesting manner. The way she represented the racism and how it works using the Gardeners mechanism was great. How the Gardener plotted the red roses she loved in good soil, treated and took good care of it. While she planted the pink roses in the old soil shows her difference and discrimination towards two plants. Those two plants which had the same potential and quality to nourish, but pink flower could not due to the discrimination. This is similar with our society today . Each and every individual has their own quality and ability to flourish. However, we are blinded by the so called racism which categorizes each individual by the race.

  10. Very interesting and important points were made in this article about racism and the different level of racism. Racism to me personally shows how dehumanize we humans have become to others; to look down on them, degrade them, and see them as useless and not important to live up to the standards or level, and therefore, treat them this way or that way. It’s really sad, especially for African Americans living in the United States, to see that, they have potential and abilities to do just like any other race, but have been deprived the opportunities to make them excel more in life. Which brings me to the question; will racism in fact ever be eradicated in the United States, despite the cried, organizing and protesting for the end of racism? It seems like a wasted energy trying to move forward but still stuck in the same position when it comes to racism. Also is racism a social construct like race? On the other hand, the governments, which have the power to change things around when it comes to health and other issues to benefit others can only do part of these changes. If the heart and mind of people is not altered towards racism, including inequality, discrimination, etc, the existence of hate(I would say) which breathe racism also is far from over.

  11. This is a very interesting article that relates to things that are in front of my eyes each day but I do not always take them seriously. Though I have always seen all three levels of racism, this is the first time I have seen them been categorized. Out of the three levels of racism mentioned, I find Internalized racism most interesting. An example is a black man bleaching is skin. The act of bleaching the skin has always drawn my attention. I went to high school with young men who thought bleaching and lightening the tone of their skins made them look more attractive. A thought like that leads me to asking, do they hate their own skin color? Does their skin color lead to them lacking self confidence? I believe that everyone should respect the color of their skin because it means a lot, especially to races that have been through so much struggle for freedom. Personal mediated racism is also displayed on a daily basis both intentionally and unintentionally. A great example is when people of a specific race choose not to sit beside other people of another race because of their skin color or the belief that those people may be harmful. This is a mainly a society and perception problem that is popular among the Black and White races in the USA. In my opinion, it is not smart to judge a person by his or her race because you will be proven wrongly on many occasions. Industrialized racism is one that many do not pay great attention to but it is probably the most serious, where people in the same country are treated differently when it comes to health-care, education, housing and freedom to vote.

  12. I previously posted a comment about this topic type of racism. After watching the video and the article I find it very amazing how race is identified. In my opinion “Racism” is a stigma people use to disgrace one an other. its even saddened how USA seems to be the country with the most diversity of people but that doesn’t stop people stop distinguish on different group of people,by color,how they dress talk. Experience prejudice can be very though and can leave very long time mental damage on the victim, sometimes I wonder how do you explain to your children which of colour is better than you or have a better of life, to have a friend sometimes its not even potray as racism, to me i portray it the color segregation as uncure disease from the uncure, just an other way to put it comparatively as to author describe it.An action of racism should be taking as a crime and people should work together to change the image of color.Together if we work to stop racism, the world would be a better place,less violence and people would live healthier.

  13. I previously posted a comment about this topic type of racism. After watching the video and the article I find it very amazing how race is identified. In my opinion “Racism” is a stigma people use to disgrace one an other. its even saddened how USA seems to be the country with the most diversity of people but that doesn’t stop people stop distinguish on different group of people,by color,how they dress talk. Experience prejudice can be very though and can leave very long time mental damage on the victim, sometimes I wonder how do you explain to your children which of colour is better than you or have a better of life, to have a friend sometimes its not even potray as racism, to me i portray it the color segregation as uncure disease from the uncure, just an other way to put it comparatively as to author describe it.An action of racism should be taking as a crime and people should work together to change the image of color.Together if we work to stop racism, the world would be a better place,less violence and people would live healthier.

  14. i have never thought about racism as different types. i have always thought that racism is just racism. Although i do know about institutionalized racism, i never thought about it as a subgroup. It was interesting to hear her say that they have been trying for decades to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities from the health system and that their target is 2010. it is now 2015 and they same disparities spoken about in the video can be found today. In the video i also found Dr Jones statement interesting when she said that racism is one of the fundamental cause of these disparities in the health field.

  15. In the article, Camara Phyllis Jones presents racism as a measurement of conscious social classification and social interpretation of phenotype. The racism is unfairly disadvantages particular group of people and communities. Is something that destroys human potential and value of a person. The author of the article depicts racism as different and unequal access to opportunities and goods, which particular nation or society offers. She hypothesizes racism as main source of health difficulties among communities. Based on author, there are 3 types of racism: ~institutionalized, ~ personally -mediated, ~internalized. Institutionalized raceme deals with differential access to social services and goods. For instance, unequal access to education, housing, and income. Personally-mediated racism describes wrong and negative assumptions about motives and nature of people. That particular type or racism is associated with deep discrimination and social stereotypes. Lastly, internalized racism depicts stigmatized self picture and self devaluation.
    In conclusion, in my opinion racism is negative social creation, which is harmful for any social group and community. Racism creates negative stereotypes, motives, and unnecessary prejudgment. Racism is a tool destroying not only lives, but minds as well.

  16. After finish reading this article, I’m feel more into the racism topic, I’ve learned from the article and the video that racism issue is still around in nowaday, I have never thought of any racism problems in school environment , but now I’m remember why my teachers are very strict on certain students, When I decide to cut my class, My teacher always call my parent. Also teacher expected more class works and homework from chinese students, when some black students does not come to class and also does not do any homework, the teacher does not expected homework from them. In the article, the author uses planting seed in two different soil pots is a perfect example to express the three concepts of racism. The red flower grows higher and prettier because the planter does not treat the pink flower fair enough, the planter put more efforts in red flower pot and less efforts in pink flower pot, so the pink flower pot get less attention and slow down in grow.

  17. I believe that in addressing racism it has to be from the oppressed and the oppressors stand point. It is interesting how she classifies Racism because it is exactly what we have been taught within our cultures and shown within society. That when we act differently from the portrayed stereotypes of races than we are trying to act like a race other than our own instead of being individuals. I have educated my children that possession is not a determinant of superiority because I have seen that they believe white is superior and the white people that they have been exposed to actually do posses more materialistic items.
    While growing up my grandmother always told me that because I am black I am more than likely going to end up with high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol but she never explained why but I do believe its what she was taught and just past down.

  18. I found the article and the allegory about the gardener with the 2 flower boxes unfortunate and worrying. I did not know about the different types of racism that the author described. In fact, I only knew about personally mediated racism, but the article opened my eyes to existence of internalized racism, which I think is the most unfortunate of all. Internalized racism is the consequence of prejudice and rejection towards a social race generation after generation until a point where members of that social race think of themselves as different from others and not worthy or capable of great things. The truth is that I never thought about internalized racism before but its existence makes a lot of sense. Using the allegory of the gardeners and his flowers, if I were one of the pink flower seeds and year after year I was treated as not worthy of a better soil and called denigrating names, I think I would “buy” that reasoning too.
    Finally, I found alarming that the “mixing of the soils” for equal opportunities and health outcomes relies on the gardener of this country, the government, simply because this gardener is known for not addressing unequal things very well.

  19. I feel that the most important part of this article was addressing “The Gardener” and addressing that there some blame to be directed towards the government for allowing racism to progress the way it has for so long and it is their responsibility to defend minorities.

  20. I found this articles very interesting to read. Internalized racism stood out the most to me because it kind of brought back memories of a friend I had in middle school. My friend was bi-racial and was very confused on which “race” she wanted to represent most. Because she was a little darker than Caucasian people and a little lighter than African American people, this put a big toll on her. She often felt that because she didn’t look exactly like the others, she was “different.” She didn’t know which race was acceptable of choosing because if she chose one over the other, would that be the right choice?

  21. From what I heard, race and ethnicity affects our health. Our genes predispose us to certain diseases. The way that we are treated because of our race when we seek health care services affects our health and our mental capacity. This in turn causes more stress and stress causes our immune system to decrease in function. Socioeconomic status also affects our health because if we don’t have access to good health care and are able to buy the food we need to stay healthy, then we would become ill.
    What I would like very much is for more studies to be done on other races for example people who are of mixed race, Asian, Indian and Latino. This is not just a black and white issue. I remember trying to make a report one day of someone threatening me. The questions that I was asked and the way that I was treated by this cop, gave me the feeling that I had already committed a crime. I was so discouraged and I walked away being very depressed. I was stressed for months which affected the way that I functioned as a person. The situation felt hopeless and helpless.

  22. As i read the article i was actually shocked to find out there is more to racism than color and discrimination. Its in fact a concept that should be looked into more often. Levels of racism? WHAT?. I found the Gardener’s Tale as a very good concept to explain the different levels. Institutionalized racism is shown by the initial separation of the seed into the two types of soil which where put in separate flower boxes. Personally mediated racism was shown when gardener sees the pink and plucks it because it was as inferior to red. Last but not least Internalized racism is illustrated when the pink flower says not to bring any pink pollen to the bee that was approaching it . ***** (I confused this assignment with this weeks assignment as I told you in class )*****

  23. Racism has been a growing problem for years. I feel like people are afraid of those who are different from themselves. They feel their security in who they are, is threatened so they feel that they have to put others down to feel good about themselves. Working in retail I have encountered “personally mediated racism” under the suspicion aspect of it by my manager who constantly tells me to watch a group of African Americans who he assumes will steal our merchandise because of the way they’re acting. Which shouldn’t be that way.
    I really liked how the author used the concept of the gardener being the government and explaining how we should mix the soils together so that the flowers can grow stronger and beautiful together.

  24. Using the symbol of the gardeners and his flowers, if I was one of the pink flower seeds, year after year I would be treated as not worthy of a better soil and called unsuperior names. I found the article about the gardener with the 2 flower boxes unfortunate. I was not aware of the different types of racism that the author described. Racism is the consequence of injustice and rejection towards a social race after generation until people of that race think of themselves as different from others.

  25. A very interesting interview. What stuck out to me the most was the institutionalized racism in “A Gardeners Tale” It really opened my eyes to what is really happening. I must say I feel ashamed I feel as if i’m a subject of internal racism and I didn’t even know it I just figured if I ignored the matter It wouldn’t affect me when in reality that choice was acceptance a sure sign of internal racism.
    My take away from this would be learning how to identify racism in different areas where things may seem “normal”.

  26. Really informative interview as it give a different way of viewing racism in 3 different structures. The gardener tale is a great description of what the U.S government is like. Racism still exist in today’s society, but not as open as before. We have the government and ourselves to blame the cause of this. Racism is a common thing in the past, and it has been going on since, that people don’t even realize that it is happening sometimes.

  27. The example of the the gardener was a great way to show the three different types of racism. The most interesting of the racism views was Internalized racism, when we think of racism we usually think it’s being projected from one person to other and the concept changes that. Internalized racism is extremely concerning to me because sometime we feel that our incompetence is due to our confidence and might not realize that internally we don’t feel we are capable and worth succeeding. We ourselves could not only be bring ourselves down but also our community, that would result in a constant cycle. Internalized racism in my option is one of the worst type because its racism that comes within, which is more harmful than other types.

  28. The video and article were very interesting and sad at the same time. All three level of racism are very important but what made me sad was internalized racism. Internalized racism is accepting the negative messages and own abilities and worth. It’s like when you keep telling someone same story over and over again, eventually that story becomes real to them. how a person can grow or achieve higher when the society have convince them that they can’t do it.In a country where every man is born free, why do we have racism? One interesting point the guest said in the video was that the most important question raised by this story is who the gardener is. It’s government’s responsibility to eliminate racism. But it depends on the person’s (government) personal views about racism.

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