Adultification Bias

Take aways:

-Young black girls are seen as less innocent.

-Need less nurturing.

-Need less support.

-Need less protection.

-Need less comforting.

-Are not worthy of second chances.

-More likely to have more punishment.

From the video, three stereotypes that young black girls are labeled with are being loud, aggressive, and threatening. These stereotypes paint these girls in negative lights, spreading misconceptions about them across the board to other groups of people. Why should young black girls be seen first with stereotypes before interacting or getting to know them, its wrong.  I do not recall very many instances where I have personally felt prejudice, I do remember feeling out of place though. I spent many summers at my aunts house in Richmond, RI.  The population there was predominantly white, there was one black family who lived around the black but their kids were very young.  I was the only brown kid in that neighborhood and at times i felt out of place, especially with nick names like "midnight" since I get much darker in the summer time. At the time  things like this did not stand out too much for me, it was not until i got older that i realized how damaging words can be since at the same time people would comment on me sounding or acting "white." I definitely experienced confusion growing up as to where I belonged. My mother and her family are white, and my father and his family are hispanic, and since I did not grow up with my dad in the picture or his family for that matter I had no connection to the language, culture, customs, etc.  There was a disconnect matching how I grew up to how I look. So at some point i would feel slightly uncomfortable being the only brown person in the room, or even feeling out of place around many hispanic people too.

 Youth Development Guide

Knew

I did not have very much prior knowledge of this information before this chapter.  I find the information useful and sorta eye opening.  I knew the concept of resiliency but did not know the term for it. The items that help young people succeed are caring relationships, high, clear and fair expectations, and opportunities for participation and contribution. Positive supports are an important focus. 

Learned

The Deficit Approach: Intervening when young people exhibited problems, or for identifying those young people "at risk" for problem behaviors and trying to prevent them from engaging in specific problem behaviors.  This approach failed because it did not consider the basic developmental needs that young people had.  I find the youth services chart very interesting, there are many "resources" available to the youth but for your "higher risk" communities the programs many not be very effective. The shift in policy section is very helpful in comparing deficit to youth development processes.  "young people's healthy development and learning depends on what they experience in all the settings in their lives: home, school, and larger community." Family, School, Community based programs.

More

Would more funding make a difference in after school programming? I don't think the difference happens with materials fully but actually the staff, maybe better funding would lead to better trained staff? I went to an after school program for a long time and it was not the best time for me, i think training probably would have helped.