fandomhigh | people suck except when they don't | thursday | period 2

Current Mood: thoughtful

Entry tags:

people suck

people suck except when they don't | thursday | period 2 | april 8

Loki was sitting behind the desk at the front of the classroom, book open on his lap and focus on said book while the class filed in. It wasn't a good book but it was one of those train wrecks that you can't stop reading till you finished. Still, he did stick a bookmark in when it was time to teach.

"Today," Loki said, getting right into it, "we're going to talk about xenophobes. Some of you might know what that is, some of you might not. Basically, xenophobes are people who dislike or fear that which is different from themselves. It's a very broad subject and, most of the time, it's connotations are negative. When people often think about xenophobes, they think about those who fear or dislike other races. In this school, it might even be a fear or dislike of other species since race is almost a non issue on an island like this."

Well, he hoped it was a non issue but he wasn't going to get into that right yet. "Now, sometimes, xenophobia occurs directly due to something else happening in the person's life. For instance, if you went to war against a group of people that looked a certain way and witnessed atrocities no one should fucking witness, you might come back from that war and react unfavorably to anyone who resembles those you fought in that war. That's xenophobia that's related to PTSD. Xenophobia has and probably always will be present in the world in some of the most horrific ways. On the lowest levels, xenophobes can just discriminate and show extreme prejudice to the target of their xenophobia. On a larger level, genocide might even occur to completely expel the group the xenophobe does not like. It's a fucking awful practice but it's prevalent and it's probably never going to go away. And, unfortunately, it can't really be fucking helped either. You can try and educate people but it's never going to be full proof. It's just...the way the fucking world is."

Which was a sad thing. Loki sighed and shook his head. "For today's activity, I want you to share, if you'd like, some examples you've seen of xenophobia in your culture. There's a lot of different people in here and it'd be helpful to see if things like this differ or stay the same across various worlds."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Somberly!

Chuck Bartowski

Joan Girardi

Dan Humphrey

Karla

Kurt Wagner

Jak

Calvin

Makita

Ellie Bartowski

Claudia Donovan

Jonothon Starsmore

Noah Puckerman

Jenny Sparks

Elena

George Cooper

阿祖拉
Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation

Take notes, talk to each other, daydream, be thoughtful!

Joan... was surprised by the decrease in Loki's swearing and the seriousness of the topic.

Today's topic really hit home for Kurt. He tried to take notes, but just ended up staring at his notebook and sighing all emo-ly.

Since today's lecture was more serious than usual, Ellie wasn't taking notes or daydreaming. She was just listening.

Claudia was mostly glad this week's activity didn't involve pretending to be xenophobic.

She did scribble a note about how she disagreed entirely with the idea that this was a problem that could never be fixed.

Share examples of xenophobia you've seen in your culture!

"Um. I guess in high school, I've seen bullying. Which counts, I think." Sort of. Chuck sure wasn't going into war level xenophobia here. He'd leave that to someone else.

"I mean, I have this buddy back home, who gets stuffed into lockers a lot, just because he likes comic books, or doesn't wear the same clothes as everyone else." It was possibly also because Morgan tended to irritate people, but Chuck left that part out.

"Yeah, that's a low level form but he's definitely getting picked on and targeted because he's going against the grain," Loki said. "At least he's apparently small enough to fit in lockers? It'd be uncomfortable if he was your size and getting shoved in lockers."

"Yeaah, he's quite--" Chuck made a vague gesture at about his shoulder height. "And a freshman... Which uh, probably doesn't help with the getting picked on."

"Me, I try to limit my locker time." Which held him in good stead here where he was likely to get sucked in for a week if he wasn't careful.

"Probably a good idea, that," Loki said, nodding. "Getting stuffed in lockers too much tends to make the girls think you're a bit of a wimp."

"Where I'm from, there is a lot of it," Kurt sighed. "People are scared of anyone who's different."

And that was all he had to say about that.

"I've been to a few places like that," Loki said, nodding. "It kind of really fucking sucks especially when there's so little you can do about it."

Kurt nodded back. "And fighting back just makes it worse, but people do it anyways. And then nobody knows who the good guys and bad guys are anymore."

"Vicious cycle," Loki agreed, nodding. "You want to fight because you know it's not true but the fighting just makes people more willing to believe that you should be targeted."

"And sometimes people attack you with giant robots and then say it's your fault," Kurt agreed.

...That part was probably not so common.

"Back home, people are finding it useful to spread lies and rumors about Black Widows," Karla admitted quietly. She didn't look up from her desk. "There's always been some unease with witches who are publicly members of the Hourglass. But they're turning that unease into fear."

"Vicious rumors, I'm assuming?" Loki asked. "Nothing lame like 'Karla dyes her hair' or something like that?"

Karla snorted. "No, nothing like that. That we're twisted and wrong. Obscene. We abuse our powers and those who serve us. That we belong to the Hourglass because we're s-sexually and emotionally incapable of being real women."

There was a reason Glacia didn't make it onto the tourist destination list for last weekend's trip.

"Those rumors are causing people to fear us. And so no one says anything when a Black Widow goes missing...or when she's found."

"That's a pretty extreme form of xenophobia, yep," Loki agreed, nodding. "It's hard to change the thinking of large groups of people once they start to believe something. Groupthink's a fucking dangerous thing."

"And since people have always been uneasy around the Hourglass, so pushing that to fear wasn't a real stretch," Karla said bitterly. "Somehow it never seems as difficult when you're trying to change someone's mind for the worse."

"It's just how fucking life is," he said and made a face. "People seem to believe the worst in people easier than they'll believe the best."

"People in my world kinda like to pretend it doesn't exist." Claudia scowled. "It does. All over the place. We're just not allowed to talk about it, any more."

Puck was slowly coming to the realization that he was probably the bad guy in this scenario. At least he didn't really beat people up anymore, usually.

"At my old school," he ventured, "a lot of people don't like the glee club, because they...uh, dress differently and sing for no reason. They usually get a slushie to the face."

Oh, they could be here all day. Jenny decided to keep it simple: "I fought in the Second World War."

Kurt raised a hand hesitantly. "On behalf of my whole country... I'm sorry?"

Jenny was the person who'd suggested the art thing wasn't working out; maybe Adolf might consider a career in (local, she'd said LOCAL) politics. So she really didn't feel like she was in any position to be accepting apologies. "Unless you're coming to us from 1946, I don't think it's in any way your fault."

"Given your explanation, I suppose you could classify the Fire Nation as an example of xenophobia. I would prefer to call it our belief in our superiority."

Once they arrive and ping in!

Jono... didn't have much to contribute today that wouldn't inevitably turn into a self-pity party, and so today he was going to keep his figurative gob shut.

He's around, looking thoughtful.

SPLAT.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

people suck except when they don't | thursday | period 2 | april 8

sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

Re: sign in [ps 04/08]

during the lecture [ps 04/08]

Re: during the lecture [ps 04/08]

Re: during the lecture [ps 04/08]

Re: during the lecture [ps 04/08]

Re: during the lecture [ps 04/08]

class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

Re: class activity | xenophobia [ps 04/08]

the ta's [ps 04/08]

Re: the ta's [ps 04/08]

loki [ps 04/08]

ooc [ps 04/08]