Jampacked Bible - Pride and Prejudice

1. Present the list of stereotypical descriptions to your audience and get them to try to match them up. There are a number of ways of doing this, depending on how adventurous you are:

- Simply hand out small sheets with the lists on.

- Write up on the board and take a show of hands for the most popular match.

- Hand out, or write up, the list of nationalities only. Play them a pre-recorded tape of you (or a talented friend) impersonating the voice or language of each description.

- Hand out, or write up, the list of nationalities only. Do a short act or sketch impersonating each description. Try and find one stereotypical piece of clothing for each nationality.

2. Use the above introduction to talk about, or discuss, the following questions:

(a) Is there any truth to these stereotypes?

(b) If so, why are they harmful?

(d) Is Jewish really a nationality? Surely there are Jews in all the other categories?

(e) Some aspects of the descriptions are quite favourable. Should 'nice' stereotyping be encouraged? Is it just as wrong as derogatory stereotyping?

(f) Consider the issue of racial jokes (careful with any examples) Should we laugh at them? Why are they funny?

(g) How does offensive name calling encourage stereotypes?

Jewish Texts

You don't need to do a special section on the 'Jewish angle' to prejudice. Try to bring the relevant Jewish texts into the main body of your programme or assembly. Mention and explain why, as Jews, we should be especially sensitive to the needs of others.

Hot off the Press

Focus, if you can, on a current story related to racism. Is there something in the papers? Has an 'incident' recently happened in your school? Have you or your friends recently experienced racism? A 'live' story will grab people's attention and interest them.

British or Jewish?

A teacher asked a young black pupil, "Where do you come from?" The child replied "I'm from Kensington miss" The teacher said "No, no, no, where were you born?" The child said "In a hospital in West London miss" And the teacher said "No, no, no, before that."

What does this little story tell us about people's perceptions and whether or not black people can be really British? Are we Jews seen as being British or Jewish, even if our families have been here for several generations? Why can't we be British Jews? The two categories are not exclusive. You could act out the above story and use it to talk about or discuss these questions.

Prejudice: causes & psychology

- Ask the audience to raise their hands if they are racists. No one (except one 'bright spark') will raise their hand. Ask them if they hate/dislike Arabs. Ask them if they feel comfortable alone, on a bus, at night, in the company of a group of black youths. Ask them if they tell racist jokes. Come up with your own questions that challenge your audience. Why can't we admit to our own prejudices?

- Write out PROJECTION, DISPLACEMENT and RATIONALISATION on big pieces of cardboard and explain what they mean using examples. Explain why we must always watch our language and attitudes.

Mainstream Programme

Work with representatives of other minorities in your school and organise an assembly or programme. Given permission from the Head, you could run this for the whole school. Obviously the content will be more general than if you were doing a programme just for Jews. When it comes to fighting prejudice and racism, you will find a lot in common with other minorities in your school.

Quiz

Being ignorant of the facts can often lead to stereotypes and prejudices. Try your audience (and yourself) on how many facts they know about minorities in Britain: (answers here) 1. We are often told that Britain is overcrowded. But is it true that each year more people come to live in this country than leave to go abroad?
(a) Yes (b) No (c) It's about equal

2. How many British people, from a population of around 60 million, do you think are Jewish?
(a) 350,000 (b) 1.5 million (c) 4 million

3. How many black and Asian people do you think there are in Britain today?
(a) 9.5 million (b) 2.4 million (c) under 2 million

4. What percentage of black and Asian people in Britain were actually born in the UK?
(a) Over 50% (b) 10% (c) 25%

5. How many different languages are spoken at home in the UK? (Can you name ten of them?)
(a) 50 (b) 25 (c) 160

6. Has a bar attendant in a pub broken the law if he refuses to serve a black or Jewish person?
(a) Yes (b) No (c) Only on Sundays

7. How many of the present 650 members of the House of Commons are Jewish?
(a) 10 (b) 22 (c) 41 (d) 50

8. How many of the present 650 members of the House of Commons are black or Asian?
(a) 0 (b) 6 (c) 16 (d) 20

Stereotypes

Here is a list of nationalities (numbered 1-10) and a set of descriptions (a-j). Try to pair them off:

1. British
2. Scottish
3. German
4. Jewish
5. Arab
6. Chinese
7. French
8. Japanese
9. Irish
10. American

a. passionate but smell of garlic
b. all alike and inscrutable
c. miserly, mean and drunk
d. a bit stupid but very friendly
e. efficient and aggressive
f. sportsmanlike and reserved
g. rich and brash
h. family loving but money grabbing
i. hardworking but insensitive
j. dirty and untrustworthy

You may be thinking that "you can't generalise about people" - you're right. Most Scots are not mean and many Americans are not rich. But if you make the pairings that most readily spring to mind, you will end up with something like:

1-f; 2-c; 3-e; 4-h; 5-j; 6-b; 7-a; 8-I; 9-d; 10-g

Deeply embedded in our language and our literature are preconceived notions as to what different groups of people are like. You may well come to the conclusion that there is a grain of truth in many of the above descriptions. But they are still stereotypes because they over-generalise, distort and are a lazy shorthand for unfairly boxing whole groups of people.

See if you can recognise the stereotypes dotted throughout this chapter.

Quiz answers

1. (b) More people are currently leaving than coming to Britain. Emigration has exceeded immigration since 1964. According to Home Office figures, most immigrants to Britain come from the 'white' Commonwealth, Europe and the USA, which dispels the myth of large scale immigration from Africa and Asia.

2. (a) Less than 1 Briton in 100 is Jewish. The highest percentage in one area is London which is 2.5%.

3. (b) 5.5% of British population is black or Asian. Of these, over half are of Asian origin and one quarter are of Caribbean origin.

4. (a) Over 50% were born here in the UK. These people are not immigrants but are black or Asian British.

5. (c) There are over 160 languages spoken in British homes. After English, the most common are Bengali, Turkish, Gujerati, Urdu, Chinese, Spanish. Greek, Punjabi and Arabic.

6. (a) The 1968 Race Relations Act made it illegal in Britain to refuse service to anyone "on the grounds of colour, race or ethnic or national origins"

7. (c) Out of a membership of 650, there are 22 Jews in the House of Commons.

8. (b) There are currently six black MPs.