Social educator Yolanda Gourgel Perdigao will host a workshop against racism for the promotion of inclusion and diversity on Wednesday, December 2, at the European University of the Atlantic, under the title “What is the color of flesh? Let’s paint the colors of the skin”. This activity is included within the framework of the subject on the Sociology of Education: social changes, education, and multiculturalism, corresponding to the first year academic program of the degree in Bilingual Primary Education taught by Dr. Carmen Varela.
The aim of this activity is to make students aware of the ethnocentric stereotypes that normalize the supposed “primacy” of the “white” skin tone and which we unconsciously transmit both in primary social settings – the family – and in secondary settings, like in schools or the social and cultural environment.
The workshop will be hosted by Yolanda Gourgel Perdigao from the Afamundi Association, who has a diploma in Social Education and a Masters in Public Policy and Equality. Originally from Angola, she has lived in Torrelavega since her childhood and has extensive experience and specific training in interculturality, immigration, day centers, and childcare.
This initiative against racism will have another expression that will be carried out through a photographic project that duplicates Angelica Dass‘ idea, with the creation of a mural in which the portraits of students will be exhibited with the pantone color of their skin as a background. The idea of this workshop was born as a result from a visit by photographer Angelica Dass to Cantabria, in March 2017. Dass then hosted a workshop for children from Afamundi, and granted permission to use the workshop in educational centers, centers for immigrants, etc., to spread the message of anti-racism and educate in integration.
Scholars from the University’s Department of Communication will take a series of student photographs in the subject of the Sociology of Education: social changes, education, and multiculturalism. A mural will then be developed with this graphic material that can be seen inside the campus.