A Student Takes a Stand

There we were.

A challenge had been assigned and The Reflexive Ponderers were not going back down.

The task was to create a short skit, three pages long, that presented a discrimination topic. The job was simple, or so we thought it was…

After a long brainstorming session we finally decided our theme: Latino/a judgment in high school, knowing we could relate to it. The idea was that a teenage boy/bully, Jack, mocks a Latino high school kid, Marcos, when he himself had his own problems to hide. Jack focuses on the fact that the Marcos is a Latino and calls him all sorts of names, including gay. The plot twist happens when Marcos presences a scene were Jack is being beaten up by his father outside the student parking lot. Receiving Marcos’ help, Jack realizes that he had been judging the Latino boy all along.  After this, Jack decides to stop his bullying, as he learned that judging people because of where they came from was an unfair treat.

The project was actually quite interesting. We definitely had fun acting out the scenes and watching how each member of the group gave a personality to his or her character. My character was called Jessica. She was part of the bullying crew but at the same time had  “unpopular” friends. In Jessica, I saw a girl who wanted to fit in but also was conscious about other people’s feeling and therefore felt guilty for being a part of things such as bullying. It was a nice opportunity to learn about discrimination and also present the message, to those that saw our skit, about how this topic is still present in our society today.

We had the chance to present our short skit in the Student Research and Writing Conference at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. The experience was great as it was something I’ve never done before. Standing in front of new students that were not part of my class had me very nervous, but in the end it was worth it. Overall, I enjoyed the dynamic of working together in a group. It was challenging to put all our ideas and opinions together in order to expose one main idea: Latino/a discrimination. Creating and performing a sketch is something that I would very much try again. The visual element of a skit makes an efficient approach to grabbing the viewer’s attention and can also present a message worth remembering.