Break Free 2.0
About Break Free:
We were inspired to do another break free project because we saw that stereotypes were still institutionalized in American minds and we wanted to push the issue further. I personally was inspired to take part in the break free movement because I have been personally influenced by certain stereotypes in my life, as well as some of my friends have been affected by these social barriers. I thought that these stereotypes have been in America for to long and that the youth needs to take action in order for these stereotypes to change.
The beginning of my break free journey:
The first part of the break free project was to find a time in your life that you felt discriminated and were effected by the stereotypes that plague America, and write it down on a card. We called them "That Cards,". For my that card, I chose to write about my childhood memories of being excluded from a basketball game because I was white.
the unlucky one (That card)
There was eleven off us. Eleven boys ready to play a fun game of basketball on a hot summer's day. 10 black boys and 1 white boy. That one white boy happened to be myself. We all gathered at the outdoor court at my local rec center. Since it was outdoors and the sun was hot that day, the black asphalt was so hot you could fry an egg on it. I looked around and saw all these black boys that were all wearing Nike Elite Socks and Jordan's, while I was wearing my plain white socks and Sketchers. When it came time to pick teams I could already sense in the atmosphere that I was being judged. After all the other boys were picked, I was obviously the last one standing. The team captain sighed at the fact that I had to be on his team. I walked over to my team to discuss where we would be playing. The team captain immediately pointed to me and said “Yo white boy, you’re on the bench!” So, I do what I am told and sit on the bench for the rest of the game.
At that moment I didn’t realise that I was sat on the bench because I was white. The funny thing about the whole situation was that I was the tallest person on the court that day. And even though I was the tallest person on the basketball court, I felt that like I was being looked down upon.
At that moment I didn’t realise that I was sat on the bench because I was white. The funny thing about the whole situation was that I was the tallest person on the court that day. And even though I was the tallest person on the basketball court, I felt that like I was being looked down upon.
My Art piece:
The next part of the break free project was to create either an art piece were it describes a moment in your life when you felt like you where being discriminated against because of your race, gender preference, etc. , or, you could make a spoken word piece about the same topic. I chose to do an art piece for my personal piece of the break free project. Along with the art piece came an artist statement that was in addition to the art piece.
the whitest i have ever felt
by: Steven Carroll
I played basketball at my local rec center where me and my friends always used to play. One day I went by myself because my friends could not go. When I arrived, I noticed that there was a bunch of other kids playing so I decided to join them. I noticed right away that everyone on the court was avoiding me. So, I waited until it came time to pick teams for the game. Everybody got picked except me, who was picked last. The captain of the team I was put on looked at me and yelled “We don’t want that white boy!” Since I was on a team of six, I sat the bench the whole game. I had never felt so white in my life. I think that’s why this event sticks out in my memory so much. Since this happened to me at such a young age, it instilled an idea in my head that I could not be good at basketball because I was not black. During this whole experience ,I felt like the small guy. Even though I was taller than everybody on the court that day, I felt like I was being looked down upon. I made the people playing basketball in front blurry because I wanted the person looking at the picture to know that I felt like I was in the background the whole time. Being pushed aside because of my race was a hard thing to understand at first when I was so young. Now, I understand why people think this way and it needs to stop.
After I finished my artist statement, I then moved on to my actual art piece. To create my art piece, I used oil pastels and black construction paper. I thought the oil pastels would be a good way of making my art piece feel like it was blended together.
break free group video:
In the group video project, we joined groups of 3-4 people. The people in the group collectively agreed on an idea to make a social experiment video on the issue or stereotype. My group decided to make a video on gender roles in the work place. The first step was to make a project proposal that we had to present to the class and have the class approve of the idea for the social experiment. The proposal consisted of what the video was going to look like, what we would say, how long the video was going to be, etc.
After me and my group members finished our parts in making the project proposal, we had to present it to the class. We made a power point showcasing what we where planning on doing for our video. Our presentation was also critiqued by our teacher.
After everything was approved by our classmates and our teacher, my group and I created a final story board giving exact details on what our video was going to consist of. The storyboard consisted of what our scenes where going to look like, what we where going to say, etc. This was a very helpful tool in creating our video because we where able to visualize what our video was going to look like before we filmed.
After all of the proposal, presentation, and story boarding, we finally got to film our video. We chose our school for the main filming location because it was the most accessible. Our actors where mainly students from our school, and my group members family's. We made the actor sort everyday jobs into a women and men category on a chart. With this activity, we tried to get people to bring out the stereotype of gender roles in the work place. After the actors finished sorting the jobs, we asked them about their answers and all of the stereotypes that exist in the work place in society.
You can watch our video here:
reflection:
Break free was definitely the most meaningful project that I have ever done at High Tech High. They way we had to really dig deep and open up on sensitive topics made it a very satisfying project. It was also meaningful because we not only tough our own lives, but we touched the lives of other people that where in or watched our videos. Definitely the hardest part about the break free project was digging deep into myself and finding those moments in my life that I felt discriminated. I think overall having to examine myself was very hard. I was able to overcome these difficulty's because I felt safe in the environment I was working in. I was always supported in my ideas and encouraged to share my story's with my class, which helped me write about them. Some things I have learned is that gender roes have existed for a very long time and that we need to put a stop to them. On a personal level, I learned that I haven't really came across much racism in my life and I haven't gone through that much compared to other people. Not that this project is over, I hope at least one of the video's my class made goes viral so not only that the issue is being heard but break free is becoming known and gains a larger following.
exhibition:
Our final exhibition for the break free project was at Queen Bee's. It was the perfect venue for our project because it gave of the perfect vibe. It had a real calm and relaxing atmosphere and it let people really engage in what we where saying about our personal story's and the stereotypes in America. I thought the entire exhibition was perfect from the spoken word pieces to the music, it could not have gone better.