I was raised from 1994 through the 2000s. I watched the world change from pro-British to pro-secularization. The world was a different place; they played God Save the Queen before class. However, that changed to Oh-Canada. Now, they do not even play a national anthem. I was raised under certain outdated platitudes. However, they no longer exist for good reason, too. I watched the world transition from old to new. The only bias I will bring is liberalism. Since, I grew up during the transition era, I have become accustomed to change and experimentation. However, some will find this repulsive and scary. I think, trying to understand and respect other perspectives and cultures will help me unlearn these bias. However, I have learned to question and experiment with new things and ideas. If I can recognize them, maybe I can adapt or unlearn them. This is why self-reflection is important. Now, we will talk about my single stories.
My single stories were being american like, drinking beer, being heterosexual, playing hockey to be cool or popular, skateboarding to attract attention, dressing differently to express oneself, living on a ranch or farm and enjoying it, not reading or learning but being physically active in sports, lastly, being white; furthermore, this is why most books we read were had a dull, white, dramatic, athletic, protagonist. As an example, Of Mice and Men. This book, although interesting, is not relevant today. All of William Shakespeare’s poems and plays were European and white focused. Not much, until high-school is there books about non-white protagonists. Only one book we read in elementary has a non-white protagonist; however, I cannot even remember that name! Unfortunately, the truth of the dominant white class does not matter. Fortunately, the truth of the minority and oppressed non-white class does, so should we incorporate more stories from non-whites in school? We must decide (Hildebrandt, 2019) (Kumashiro, unknown).
References
Cappello, M., & Hildebrandt, K. (2019). Proceedings from ECS 210: The
First Lecture. University of Regina.
Kumashiro, S. (Unknown). Against Common Sense [PDF] (Chapter 7 ). Retrieved from
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g8EOKETIKKMlKDn9b78qxoQVH-K3R6QK/view
Brandon, I totally agree with the idea of unlearning bias by trying to understand and respect other cultures and perspectives. Also, through your narrative I could see some of the stereotypes of North American culture spread around the world, such as being good at sports or drinking beer. Thank you for sharing your single story.