Week Six: Diversity & Inclusion II

Introduction

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This week was a continuation from the previous week, week 5. We were given the assignment to watch Documented. On Monday of class, we discussed Documented. The documentary is about a well-known journalist who comes out to the world as an undocumented American. It follows him as he meets with political figures over the issues, gives speeches, and attend various events to bring awareness to changes needed regarding immigration. Then we were told we should watch another documentary by Jose, the undocumented American, called White People. This documentary was more focused on white privilege. He asked many white people how they feel about white privilege and even handed out facts. I did enjoy both of the documentaries, I just feel as though White People took more of an aggressive approach rather than a progressive one. 

Monday

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Monday's class was dedicated to discussing Documented. At the beginning of class, we were given a sheet of paper to fill out regarding the film. Then we discussed in small groups until it was time to discuss as a class. Doctora showed us some clips from then Jose Antonia Vargas came to Georgia Southern to give a speech. During these clips, he made it very clear to the crowd that he believed that calling someone an "illegal immigrant" was a derogatory term. This led to a class discussion about whether or not we agree with him. I personally agree with this to a certain extent. I one hundred percent agree that no human being can be illegal, but instead their actions themselves are the thing that is illegal. On the contrary, the state of them living in the country without papers is illegal. Additionally, many undocumented people refer to themselves as illegal. The issue comes when the term illegal is used in a dehumanizing, derogatory way. 

Wednesday

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On Wednesday we watched short clips from White People since watching it on our own wasn't mandatory. We also watched a few more clips from Jose's speech, primarily a clip where he asked the audience "What have you done and what are you doing to earn your American citizenship?". This was a question I had not been prepared to answer and I ended up not finding a real answer. Next, we were all given a sheet of paper with a variety of questions on them. We were then split into small groups to answer whichever questions we wanted to answer. My group discussed the question mentioned above and a few others that we felt comfortable enough to answer. Once the small groups had enough time to discuss, Doctora brought us back together to asked Enysa and Matthew a few questions about what people assume about them when they first see them. This was a very interesting conversation and I enjoyed watching everyone try to figure out Matthews home language.