This section provides an overview of resources to support with engaging with Truth and Reconciliation, using respectful terminology, and expanding your understanding of stereotypes & racism.

This is part of the Maamwi Hub's Discover Section, where you can find information and resources on Indigenous Peoples’ history, cultures, and perspectives, with a focus on the territory currently referred to as Ontario. Explore the entire Maamwi Hub by visiting the Provider Set linked below.

This kit covers stereotyping of Arab people, the Arab/Israeli conflict, the war in Iraq and militant Muslim movements. Students will learn core information and vocabulary about the historical and contemporary Middle East issues that challenge stereotypical, simplistic and uninformed thinking, and political and ethical issues involving the role of media in constructing knowledge, evaluating historical truths, and objectivity and subjectivity in journalism.

The 4-day unit is designed to center on the voices of a marginalized community, Muslim Americans, as a foundation for students to explore and celebrate the plurality of values and identities in their own classrooms. Students will be engaging with journalism, practicing active listening, compassion, and empathy, and meet differences with curiosity rather than prejudice.

Students begin this unit by reading The Proudest Blue, a picture book by Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad that captures the challenges Faizah and Asiyah face when Asiyah wore her hijab to school. Students discuss discrimination and focus on the the hijab as a symbol of cultural identity.

Then students screen a short documentary film “Holding Fire.” The documentary follows Somia Elrowmeim, a naturalized American Yemeni immigrant and activist, who fights for the rights of South Brooklyn Muslims. The film provides a behind-the-scenes look at how grassroots organizing works especially during the modern Islamophobia period.

Driven by the courage and joy that Faizah, Asiyah, and Somia demonstrate in celebrating their cultures and standing up in their communities, students will explore these themes in their classroom. This mini-unit is being taught as a part of a longer classroom exploration of conflict and resolution.

People are often biased against others outside of their own social group, showing prejudice (emotional bias), stereotypes (cognitive bias), and discrimination (behavioral bias). Biases can explicit (overt and conscious) or more implicit (automatic, ambiguous, and ambivalent). In the 21st century, however, with social group categories even more complex, biases may be transforming.

This course analyzes mainstream, popular films produced in the post-World War II 20th century U.S. as cultural texts that shed light on ongoing historical struggles over gender identity and appropriate sexual behaviors. It traces the history of LGBTQ/queer film through the 20th and into the 21st century. It also examines the effect of the Hollywood Production Code and censorship of sexual themes and content, and the subsequent subversion of queer cultural production in embedded codes and metaphors. In addition, this course also considers the significance of these films as artifacts and examples of various aspects of queer theory.

Information regarding the current refugee crisis. Addresses causes for concern and debunks common myths about the refugee program.

This is a lesson for students to discuss the different stereotypes they have or see in our world. 

This activity has students practice their listening and comprehension skills. They will identify stereotypes from the target language and culture, and also practice describing themselves and someone they know (nationality, name, characteristics).

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor 120,000 Japanese Americans and 881 Aleuts were incarcerated in camps for over three years during WWII. Nonetheless Japanese Americans and Native Americans had shown their loyalty to the United States in various ways. The no-no boys who responded ‘no’ to a loyalty questionnaire, the ones who served in the U.S. military, the legal challengers who tried to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and those who fought for redress and repatriation are all loyal Americans. They fought for democracy, the rule of law, and to defend their country, America. They are all loyal Americans.

2021 Social Science Standards Integrated with Ethnic Studies:
Civics and Government: HS.1, HS.2, HS.9
Historical Knowledge: HS.52, HS.61, HS.64, HS.65, HS.66
Social Science Analysis: HS.71, HS.73, HS.74, HS.75