The Concept of Racism, Stereotypes and Prejudices Reflected in En Vogue’s "Free Your Mind‪"‬

With the notion of being a matter of the past, the topics of racism, stereotypes and prejudices are oftentimes put aside in today’s youth mindset. But, although seemingly far away from Germany, these subjects are still present and have been ever since the racial segregation in the US has been dissolved; unfortunately the same applies in Germany and the issues are increasingly present in German news, e.g. PEGIDA movements or the burning of refugee homes. Especially now, teachers are required to focus on educating critical citizens and making students aware of the current developments and critically reflect the dangers and possible ways of diminishing such developments.

This paper shows a possible approach to tackle the challenge described above in devising a lesson that handles with the subject matter by using En Vogue’s “Free Your Mind”. Although released in 1992, the song still addresses contemporary problems of racial discrimination and calls on overcoming fossilized stereotypes in order to get beyond those conflicts.

This paper provides an approach on designing a lesson within a unit on those issues, using authentic material and contemporary techniques. It suits the requirements of the "Lehrplan" in Rhineland-Palatinate and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.