We often think of ourselves as treating everyone the same no matter what nationality or color of skin others have. During times of distress, peoples underlying prejudices can appear. Scroll down and read the story about the red and green people, and ask yourself, "Could I ever feel this way?"
Puppet Role Play; Younger
After making a puppet have your children/students use the puppet in the role play scenarios below. Puppet outlines at bottom of this post.
Role Play Rules: Adult decides skit. Absolutely NO negative comments or inappropriate laughter from the audience. After skit is over, others clap.
Jenny's dad was laid off from his job. Money is tight and Jenny's clothes are old. Your friend is making fun of Jenny and teasing her about her clothes. With your puppet, what do you tell your friend?
Scenario 2:
Marcus just moved into the neighborhood. He is shy and doesn't know anyone so he keeps to himself. Your friend starts saying things that are not nice about Marcus. With your puppet, what do you say to your friend?
Scenario 3:
Amanda has a red birthmark on her face. The children at school tease her because of the birthmark. With your puppet what do you say to the children teasing Amanda?
Land of the Red and Purple; Older
(Important story)
There was a land of people who were either red or purple in color. Most of the red people did the work in the land, while the purple people, who had most of the wealth, were good at running the land and they treated the red people fairly. There were a few conflicts that arose, but everyone knows their roles and it is usually handled with ease. There were minor happenings of nature, health problems, or financial difficulties, in which the red people would do the work, and the purple people helped with guidance and money. Eventually everything was back to normal.
One day a Green person appeared and began to live in the land. At first everyone seemed nice enough and found the stranger as a fascinating topic for discussion. Later, talking about the green person helped to distract from what could have been a boring day. Both the red and purple people liked to invent stories about themselves and the green person, to prove their natural superiority. They had an exaggerated since of themselves. For the most part, talking about themselves as better than the green person, made them feel superior, and they ignored and denied the green person’s intelligence and compassionate loving nature.
Years have passed since the arrival of the green person and somehow he made friends with some of the red and purple people, married and had children. Some years later a natural disaster caused a significant problem and havoc in the land. Some of the red and purple people had used the green people as a tool of self congratulations, because they prided themselves in having accepted the green family. But, now having gone through difficulty, began to feel threatened by the procreation of these undesirable, different green people.
The natural disaster caused more difficulties down the road. The crops began to fail because of pests, storms brought in landslides, health epidemics broke out. Feeling attacked by the numerous problems the land was experiencing, the red and purple people turned their anger toward the green person and his family. The purple people feared they would be blamed for the lands problems for not having prepared well enough for a disaster and started a rumor about the green family, which they began to call the evil people. Also in fear of being blamed, the red people were more than happy to place the blame on the green family for the problems of the land.
The red and purple people are not stupid and know it is really not the green people’s fault that created the problems of their land; there is no one that should be blamed. But, their FEAR and ANGER triggered it, and they took it out on someone else; it created an overwhelming need to blame. It is most often the people who are not in a position to fight back who are targeted; innocent people who are too weak to fight back. Panic and mistrust expanded across the land, which lead to harshness and brutality toward the green people. The green people were accused of everything imaginable, just because they were green. Even the people, who had been friends of the green people, even though they feel guilty, go against their former friends.
(This kind of aggression can happen with family members, co-workers, genders, races…).
Note:
Hate is not the answer. When a group of people or a country is consumed in hatred, eliminating the fall guy or people who are blamed, is a possibility. The fall guy is the victim. Hatred contaminates, and the hatred continues far after the object of the hatred is gone.
