In November 2016, I got to do an IGNITE! talk at the California Math Council (CMC) South conference in Palm Springs, CA. If you’re unfamiliar with the IGNITE! talk format all speakers give 5-minute presentations that are 20 slides long, and the slides automatically advance every 15 seconds whether you’re read or not. It is equal parts exhilarating and terrifying.
This IGNITE! talk is a 5-minute pitch on why all educators should participate in the #ObserveMe movement. You can watch it below, or download it to share with others.
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The first time I saw this blog post, I responded to the offensive discriminatory nature of this video. I think it’s worth another try since the blog post resurfaced in my email recently. I will reiterate points from my last response, but this time I am going to include questions that I hope will help you understand my point. When you are speaking about the woman with the cats, you insert humor before the slide comes up and the audience laughs. Around 2:07 you show the slide of the obese man and the over weight woman on couch. You say nothing, and the minute the slide comes up, the audience laughs. Why do you think that happened, and how do you think overweight people in the audience might feel? Your comment at about 2:11 is, “They have become so accustomed to smell that they no longer notice it.” There is a cabinet on the left with very well organized knick knacks. There are 2 pictures on either side of a painting, 2 T.V. tables, a coffee table of sorts, and 2 overweight people sitting on a couch. What in that room would “smell”? My questions are: What was the purpose behind choosing the people you did? Why didn’t you choose a white, 90 pound gorgeous twenty something woman ? (You wouldn’t have gotten the laughter that you did.) Or why didn’t you choose people of color? (It might have appeared racist-people of color smell.) . My point is, making fun of any group of people is never okay. I am an instructional coach in a large middle school in Colorado. To check my thinking, I shared the video with our math department (we often use your materials) and students in a health and drama class. The most powerful comment came from a student who said, “Why would someone famous need to make fun of fat people? Why would anyone need to make fun of fat people for that matter.” I sincerely hope you remove this video from your blog.
Hi Kathy. Thanks for following up with me. I can tell you are passionate about this. My response is still the same as when you emailed me so I’ll share that here so you can read about my intentions.
When I mentioned “people had become so accustomed to the smell,” I was continuing the story about the realization that the Proctor & Gamble employees had from the house that smelled like cat urine. My goal for using that image was to show a house that looked like it could be old and musty. It’s really hard to show a smell, so I liked how the couch and games looked sloppy and unmaintained. I figured that it would look like a house that needed Febreze, even if no people were in the picture.
The people weren’t really even something I was paying attention to. In fact, to me, the woman does not look overweight at all. Your question does make me wonder how else the image could have been interpreted. For example, if both people were African-American, might someone think I was implying that African-Americans smell? If so, why is no one focusing on them being white and me potentially implying that white people smell?
So, making any statements about overweight people was not my intention. I was primarily focused on the room that looked like it was dark and dingy.
Hi Robert,
Thank you for your work. I’ve used several pieces and appreciate all you’ve added to the mathematics education conversation.
I must say that I was struck by the irony of your comment here. The focus of your talk on the things we get used to but don’t notice is valuable and certainly applicable to our teaching and classrooms. However, when someone respectfully pointed out to you something that you may be so used to (the stereotyping of over weight people) that you weren’t noticing it, you didn’t seem to see that irony.
Yes, that vulnerability and openness to perspective is crucial for all of us in many ways. Thank you for your consideration.
Kathy and Lisa, I appreciate that you both took the time to explain your thinking to me. It’s become clear that the image I chose was offensive, so I replaced it in the video. I never meant for it to be construed that way and it doesn’t reflect my values to keep it in place. Thank you for helping me to reflect on this.