Blog / teaching tolerance

Your brother routinely makes anti-Semitic comments. Your neighbor uses the N-word in casual conversation. Your co-worker ribs you about your Italian surname, asking if you're in the mafia. Your classmate insults something by saying, "That's so gay." And you stand there, in silence, thinking, "What can I say in response to that?" Or you laugh along, uncomfortably. Or, frustrated or angry, you walk away without saying anything, thinking later, "I should have said something." People spoke about encounters in stores and restaurants, on streets and in schools. They spoke about family, friends, classmates and co-workers. They spoke about what they did or didn't say — and what they wished they did or didn't say. And no matter the location or relationship, the stories echo each other. Speak Up! is a book that shares love, insight and pain, but also offers "lost words", practical solutions and hope for a better tomorrow. Download your free copy of SPEAK UP! Another great resource offered by Teaching Tolerance.

Here's another great poem from Arnold Adoff that was in the book All the Colors of the Race that I featured yesterday. On my applications by Arnold Adoff On my applications   I can                                put: this girl:           a black,              white, Christian, Jewish,             young             woman:                  student,                  musician, singer, dancer, runner    in the middle distance races,                  is willing to help you                  if you take her as she                                              is.

The Cold Within by James Patrick Kinney Six humans trapped by happenstance in black and bitter cold Each possessed a stick of wood, Or so the story's told. Their dying fire in need of logs, the first woman held hers back For on the faces around the fire She noticed one was black. The next man looking 'cross the way Saw one not of his church And couldn't bring himself to give The fire his stick of birch. The third one sat in tattered clothes He gave his coat a hitch, Why should his log be put to use To warm the idle rich? The rich man just sat back and thought Of the wealth he had in store, And how to keep what he had earned From the lazy, shiftless poor. The black man's face bespoke revenge As the fire passed from his sight, For all he saw in his stick of wood Was a chance to spite the white. And the last man of this forlorn group Did naught except for gain, Giving only to those who gave Was how he played the game. The logs held tight in death's stilled hands Was proof of human sin, They didn't die from the cold without, They died from the cold within.