Embedded Files
Scenario #1: Racism Roundup
Scenario #1: Racism Roundup
It’s lunchtime and someone near you mentions a recent rally where there were apparently actual KKK members participating. “I thought that group disbanded years ago,” comments a peer nearest you. He continues, “Their history is so tainted—killing people just because they were Black and talking about the ‘white race’ being supreme.
I didn’t realize there were still people who thought that way.”
How can you respond?
1) Acknowledgement of Racism.
You: Yes, unfortunately there are still people who think that one race is superior to others. Why can’t everyone understand the dignity of every person and every race?
Peer: I don’t know.
You: Why did Hitler think that certain white people were superior especially to people of Jewish descent? Then he set out to kill all of the Jews in the world.
Peer: That was crazy. I’m glad he was stopped.
You: Did you know that Margaret Sanger agreed with Hitler during that same time in history?
Peer: Who is she?
2) Seize the moment to expose a hidden reality.
You: Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood.
Peer: Really? I’ve heard of Planned Parenthood. So who founded it?
You: Margaret Sanger, and she actually spoke at a Ku Klux Klan rally back in 1926.
Peer: Why would she speak at a KKK rally?
You: She was a leader in the Eugenics movement, much like Hitler in Germany.
Peer: What’s Eugenics?
3) Define terms.
You: The word Eugenics means “well born.” It’s like pure-bred breeding, except for humans. Eugenicists encourage “fit” people to reproduce and discourage, sterilize, or abort the “unfit.”
Peer: Why would Margaret Sanger want that?
You: She wrote in her book Woman and the New Race that birth control “is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit.” Blacks to her were unfit.
Peer: But birth control isn’t like that now; now it’s for planning your parenthood, not killing black people.
You: Well, Planned Parenthood started on the agenda to reduce the Black population, and today 79% of their abortion facilities are in Black and/or Hispanic communities. And abortion is currently the number one cause of death in the Black community.
Peer: Hmm, sounds like Planned Parenthood is working on fulfilling its founder’s goal.
Scenario #2: Mythical Math
Scenario #2: Mythical Math
An ad defending federal funding of Planned Parenthood comes on during a football game...
How can you respond?
1) Seize the Moment to expose a hidden reality.
You: That was a deceptive ad we just saw about Planned Parenthood.
Peer: Why? Don’t they help provide essential and life-saving care to millions of people?
2) Acknowledge part of the statement that might be true then define terms.
You: Planned Parenthood provides a variety of services, like the ad mentioned. But they are the largest abortion provider in our country, committing over 300,000 abortions a year (which actually comes to one every 97 seconds).
Peer: That’s a lot of abortion! But while listening to the news with my mom, I heard a legislator say that abortions are only 3% of services that Planned Parenthood provides. So why is it such a big deal if they get millions of dollars from taxpayers every year?
You: Yeah, they did some deceptive math gymnastics to get to that 3% number. To make abortion seem like a small part of their business, Planned Parenthood regards every single service they provide as equal. So, if a woman comes in for an abortion, she is given a pregnancy test, undergoes the abortion, is given an STI (sexually transmitted infection) test, and some contraceptives. That’s four services, even though she went in there for one purpose.
Peer: Oh well, so then they’re right: it is only 3% of the services they provide. I don’t necessarily see why that’s deceptive.
3) Draw an analogy.
You: Imagine saying that football is only .005% of the NFL's business because each season, they sell about 5 million hotdogs and they only have 256 games. If they tried to claim that football is only a small part of their business, wouldn't we respond, "yeah right, you're the National Football League."
Peer: Haha, if that's the case, that sounds absurd.
Try role playing without the script
Try role playing without the script
1) Use the bullet points on the right side of the page (page 4 of program materials) to remind you of key facts and analogies.
2) Remember it can help a person feel understood when you reflect what he said back to him as a question, such as, “Do you mean...?”
3) Asking questions can help the other person think about what he said. For example: Instead of replying to They Say #1 with, “That is like saying, ‘I’m personally opposed to ...,’ you can ask, “Would you also say, ‘I am personally opposed to ..?’” and allow the other person a moment to think about it.
See They Say... You Say... in the pdf Program Materials.
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