BBBS: Addressing diversity and acceptance in your match

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Resources for Mentors in light of Recent Events

Dear BBBS matches,

This is the sixth installment in a weekly series of addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our BBBS family. This week, we'd like to focus on some psychological studies that shed light on social factors you may witness in the news--interesting to discuss with our older Littles!

We welcome your feedback and questions, and we thank you for your time and intentionality!

Past DEI Emails:

Week 1 Link:

3 Tips for Bigs: Assumptions, Privilege, and Building Bridges

Week 2 Link:

Feedback from Parents and Mentors

Week 3 Link:

Having intentional conversations with careful language

Week 4 Link:

Activities you can do around DEI

Week 5 Link:

Stress responses and de-escalation

The Stanford Prison Experiment

We must remember, in the battle between nature and nurture, social conditions are powerful environments that can change a person's use and reaction to human feelings such as power and protectiveness. (Check out our training last week on conditioned stress responses in the brain!)

In 1971, researches at Stanford University conducted an experiment that took people who otherwise had no major differences and placed them in positions where one group had power over the other...let's watch what happened...

Click here if you'd like to sign your Little / Child up to be able to talk with some of our Bigs who are police officers, if we arrange an event around this.

The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment

What might it take to move between social classes? How might that be further complicated by being a minority?

INTERSECTIONALITY is the term used to describe the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender and how those factors may lead to complex discrimination or disadvantage.

The 1972 Stanford Marshmallow Experiment shed light on how important it is to learn to delay gratification at a young age. This also has implications in cases where kids feel like the cards of society are stacked against them; what kind of willpower or socioeconomic factors does it take to move between social classes, especially if you're also working with intersectional intolerance? Take a look at the marshmallow experiment below and the New York Times mobile graphic about social mobility.