Right to Respect and Dignity Author: US History Dept. January 2014 BOUNCER THE RED BOUNCY BALL

Once upon a time there was a big red bouncy ball name Bouncer. Bouncer was the biggest, fastest, and strongest bouncy ball on the block.

All the other bouncy balls looked up to him. Bouncer really liked the attention he received for being so big, fast, and strong.

Over time Bouncer started to use his physical advantage to control the other bouncy balls. Ben and Todd were two other Red Bouncies that really looked up to Bouncer, and Bouncer could get them to do whatever he wanted. Overtime, Ben and Todd didn’t even question Bouncer’s demands, they just did as he commanded. Bouncer had them convinced that the Red Bouncies were far superior than other remaining Bouncies. Therefore, discriminating and limiting the Bouncie Rights of the other Bouncies based on their color was justified.

It became will known in Bouncytown not to mess with Bouncer and his boys! They got away with everything. Other Bouncies were afraid to be around Bouncer and his brutes. They would hide in their homes to avoid conflict.

Over time, the Bouncies of Bouncytown began to believe that they were inferior to Bouncer the rest of the Reds. The citizens of Bouncytown even elected him Mayor. The vote was Of course, only the Red citizens voted, everyone else was too scared of Bouncer, Ben, and Todd to vote.

Things in Bouncytown really got bad when Bouncer became mayor. His first action was to implement a plan to segregate the city. He didn’t want the different colored Bouncies to interact with the red Bouncies. According to city laws, the schools, restaurants, restrooms and public transportation systems had to be separate. Multi-Colored bouncy balls were not allowed to live in the same neighborhoods or buildings as Reds.

Due to the segregation laws created by Bouncer, Bouncytown has two very distinct areas. An area for Red Bouncy Balls and an area for Multi-Colored Bouncies. Bouncer convinced the Red Bouncies this was better because they were far superior than the other Bouncies and if they interacted with the Multi- Colored it would only bring the Reds down.

As time passed, the citizens of the Red Bouncy zone began to notice that the Multi-Colored zone was doing really well. Their side of the town was clean, had good schools, good jobs, and opportunities for all. They also had the freedom to live where they wanted. The Red side of town had advantages, but they all went to Bouncer and his boys. This made some of the Reds to begin to question Bouncer’s claims of Red superiority. If the Multi-Colored Bouncies are so bad, why is their part of the city better than ours?

Bouncer responded to the Red’s questions about Red superiority and segregation with anger. Bouncer didn’t care about the due process of law when it came bouncers who questioned his beliefs and rules, he would simply punish them as he saw fit. Then, he created more laws that would further limit the freedoms and further segregate the Multi-Colored Bouncies away from the Reds. This didn’t sit well with many of the Reds and they began to leave Bouncer’s side of town.

The Reds that left were accepted into the Multi-Colored society without question and they enjoyed life. They have the freedom of speech, life, education, respect, and due process within the law. This caused a mass exodus of Reds from Bouncer’s area, until all that remained was Bouncer, Ben and Todd. Now that they were segregated to the bad side of town, Ben and Todd began to empathize with the Multi-Colored Bouncies for what life was like for the Multi-Colored Bouncies when the Reds segregated them and limited their human rights. They apologized for their actions and were gladly accepted into the Multi-Colored society. Bouncer was left alone on the red side of town to ponder his superiority.

Class Analysis What civil rights terms did you notice in the story? Human Right: Dignity and Respect – How was the human right of dignity and respect violated in this story? Moral: – What was the moral learned? – Who learned the moral? – How? Predict what you think will happen to Bouncer.