Role Models: Exit Slip

Coming from a "visible minority", stereotyping is one of the biggest problem I faced growing up. I can often think of two stances in terms of enacting such barrier in class: either we actively promote the minority group over equality, or we take a neutral stance and give equal opportunities to all students. I often hesitate taking the first stance, because of the backlashes that could happen. Take the events that happen down over the border. Some group now believe this practice is creating an unfair advantage to the minority group. This argument, however, is flawed because taking privilege away from privileged group does not constitute unfairness. Some of these damages caused by discrimination is deeply rooted in cultures that people don't even find flaws in the system. I, as a teacher, would probably take the first stance when I find the courage to do so, but I may resort to the second stance until I am more confident with my stance.

The other reason that I hesitate to take the first stance is because of my surroundings. As a person who always reaches out to groups that practices equal opportunities, I am somewhat shielded from seeing stereotypes. For example, both of my thesis supervisors are female, and I share an office with three other female graduate students in the field of physics. I don't feel the stereotype happening in my surroundings, but does that mean that stereotyping is not happening? There are only 30% of students who are female in my group (all three happened to be in my room), and researches show that female primary investigators get their proposal rejected more often than male PI's at a statistically significant level. At a microscopic level, people often don't see the stereotypes, but that does not mean that stereotyping is happening at a broader scale. Presenting such ideas to students would also help them understand not just stereotyping, but also other social injustices as well.