An activity we did during class was called "Theatre of the Oppressed". The instructions were for us to get into our Barangay groups and act out a short skit that displayed an act of colonial mentality by friends, family, or our community. We were to act out our skit two times, and by the second time a member of the class was supposed to jump in and replace a person in the skit. In that time they are in the skit, the person who jumped in is supposed to mediate the situation so the colonial mentality doesn't come into effect.
Our group, Tubig, went first and our skit was showing an act of colonial mentality by family members. Our skit showed Mary asking her parents to join the swim team, and her parents refusing because they didn't want her skin to get dark. Because of already preset colonial mindsets, lighter skin is seen as "more attractive" as opposed to dark skin. To mediate the situation, a classmate jumped in and became the father of Mary and convinced Mary's mom to let her at least let her try out for the team, even if it meant her skin would get darker. The next group that went was Tselogz, and their skit showed an act of colonial mentality done by their community. Their skit showed a guy who recently came back from a foreign country to America and get harassed by Americans because they overheard him speaking his native language. This shows colonial mentality because the Americans harassed a person just because he spoke a language that they were unfamiliar with. They saw it as a chance to become overly nationalistic and derogatory. To mediate the situation, a classmate jumped in as one of the harassers and let the other harasser know that what he was saying was ignorant. He was told that America was founded on other ethnic cultures and many of American customs and food aren't original to begin with. The activity was fun and really opened my mind on how inconspicous some acts of colonial mentality really are. I wouldn't have linked some of the skits to colonial mentality if it was not already said in the beginning of class. Other than obvious racism, I realized that even seemingly innocent acts from my family are really acts of colonial mentality. The activity also helped me realize that just like in the skits, everyone can be a person who can jump in to mediate situations such as the ones presented in class. It just becomes a matter of how far each person is willing to go allow these situations to happen.
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May 2017
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