For this week, we really wanted to focus on intersectionality and how it relates to structural racism. I was very happy to learn that most of our students had already understood the nuances of structural oppression. However, to give the teens a more comprehensive understanding, we decided to show them a popular video that breaks down the institutional devices that are planted, that causes a young black boy to receive unfair and racist treatment as opposed to a young white boy.

Link for Video about Structural Oppression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHIQIO_bdQ

At the same time, Katherine and I wanted to explore other topics including intersectionality and code switching. We first asked the teens how they felt these topics were related. The teens had a large discussion about how other elements of identity including gender, gender expression, sexuality, and citizenship status can also affect the way society sees people therefore how they are treated. I was pleasantly surprised how they also wove code switching into the discussion. They were able to relate how in different environments, we may have different comfortability, thus we change the way we act. Overall, today’s session was extremely discussion based and I was glad that the teen cohort was open to a lot of participation.