In Tuesdays lecture we discussed both race and patriarchy, both in the past and present. I found this lecture very informative and learned a lot of information that definitely opened my eyes as to what is going on in the world.

When talking about racism I learnt a lot of historical facts that I was totally unaware of and how we as a society are better now but still no where near perfect. One of the stories we were shown was a case about a 14 year old African-American boy called Emmet Till. This was a case that I had never heard of before and the lecture gave me lots of information about the horrible event that took place. Emmet had touched a white woman’s hand and as a result of this he was brutally murdered. The story in full is extremely heart breaking but his mum decided to have an open coffin to show everyone just how horribly he was treated as a result of the colour of his skin. When the men who committed the crime were taken to court they did not get charged even though it was clear it was them. During the trial a black male stood in front of the jury and was able to identify the two men that were being accused. This was a huge thing because it was very rare for a black person to stand up in court and their point finger at a white man. It is insane that they weren’t charged for the crime. Even now African-Americans are not treated fairly. Some white people still look at them in a lesser way and you still hear and see stories in the news and on social media of them being mistreated. For example, the events that took place in Charlotte USA and Charlottesville USA. It obviously isn’t just African-Americans that are treated unfairly either, look at what gets said about Muslims; people always assume they are terrorists. As primary teachers we need to show the children that the colour of your skin and what race you are doesn’t matter, we are all people. Hopefully, all the different individuals across the three course can start to change the way people think.

The other important topic that was talked about in our lecture was patriarchy. We discussed the equality of women. This is also a topic that is seen often in the news. Women have always been seen as inferior to men; even now in society women don’t get paid the same or recognised for their achievements in the same way that men do. For example, in sports, a woman could achieve an Olympic gold medal meanwhile her male teammate achieves a silver, which is still something to celebrate, however it is the male that gets the glory and the headlines. Women deserve recognition too. Women can be just as successful as their male peers but instead they are seen as the one who cooks or the one that is there just to please the male. We have also come a long way from how women used to be treat, thanks to the suffragettes, but we still have more progress to make. As teachers we need to stop the stereotype that makes people think that being a female means you are less than a male. To do something ‘like a girl’ should not be an insult and we need to show that to the children in our classes.

A factor that I have mentioned in both paragraphs is the media. This plays a major influence on how people think and it furthers the ideas of some stereotypes. It paints certain races in negative ways and portrays certain sports and jobs as gender specific; this isn’t helping society. It is important to try not to think this way and we can hopefully change the way this is seen by treating everyone in our classes, or even in public, as equals. As mentioned, we have come a long way in both of the topics but there is still so much more to improve on and we need to work together to do so.