A Day Without Immigrants

For the past few weeks, I've been talking with my middle-school kids about the recent immigration debates. We watched "A Day Without a Mexican" and I noted that when I first introduced the title, they made sure to identify themselves as "not Mexican" ("I'm Dominican, I'm Puerto Rican," etc.). They told me that they believe "immigrant" is considered a bad word and that kids in their classes have used it to insult each other. (My rough estimate of first and second-generation immigrants in the student population is at least 70-80%.) After watching the film, one student asked why the pink fog into which the Mexicans disappeared couldn't be a white fog and take away all the white people. As the students walked out of the room at the end of the film, I heard --- (who is Dominican) say, "I'm a proud Mexican."

For an excellent dialogue about immigration, check out tonight's episode of NOW on PBS. Did I mention that NOW is one of my favorite programs, even after Bill Moyers retired?

An excellent anti-bias and diversity appreciation resource that provides free materials for educators, counselors, youth workers, parents and kids is the Teaching Tolerance web project . I particularly love their One World posters (see above), which are 20 times more interesting and creative than those usually made for the school environment.

And for all of us who think we are completely accepting, open-minded and nonjudgmental, take these hidden bias tests.