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Can Racism Be Stopped in the Third Grade?
An experiment at Fieldston, which starts when 8-year-olds are sorted by race, has some very liberal parents fuming
By Lisa Miller
Interesting idea. I would like to know exactly what is in this curriculum though. I think encouraging kids to look at and accept differences without disrespect is a good thing. If anyone thinks that kids do not identify by race younger than 8 years old, they should listen to parents of young children of color who struggle with explaining the discrimination they face even when they are affluent and even when they are young.
I've watched kids at school playing at recess. They don't segregate at young ages..K-3. In 4th I saw it starting to happen and by 8th grade though I see them segregate themselves.
But racism isn't about culture and differences. Racism is thinking that one race is superior to another regardless of culture.
I don't entirely agree with this.
Racism is the belief that different people possess different characteristics or abilities that are defined by their race. This leads to a conclusion of superiority, but the root is deeper.
Also, racism can be internalized by minorities when the predominant culture insists on portraying them as inferior even when they achieve a high place in the society.
The other thing here is that in fighting institutional racism, we need to be aware of our own prejudices and of the truth that there is really only one race, the human one. Individuals need to accept there societal advantages and disadvantages to fight what our institutions do.
For example, how can we fight the prejudgment of names.
Quote:
n 2003, researchers at the University of Chicago and MIT released a study involving 5,000 fake resumes that found that 10% of those featuring “Caucasian-sounding” names were called back compared to just 6.7% of those featuring “black-sounding” names. Moreover, resumes featuring names such as Tamika and Aisha were called back just 5% and 2% of the time. The skill-level of the faux black candidates made no impact on callback rates.
Racism is the belief that different people possess different characteristics or abilities that are defined by their race. This leads to a conclusion of superiority, but the root is deeper.
Also, racism can be internalized by minorities when the predominant culture insists on portraying them as inferior even when they achieve a high place in the society.
The other thing here is that in fighting institutional racism, we need to be aware of our own prejudices and of the truth that there is really only one race, the human one. Individuals need to accept there societal advantages and disadvantages to fight what our institutions do.
For example, how can we fight the prejudgment of names.
I think you are confusing discrimination with racism.
Not everyone that discriminates is a racist.
But every racist discriminates.
I think this is completely misguided. They can certainly have discussions about identity and race but why segregate? Who says people must identify with people who superficially "looks" like them based on a given criteria? And what about the mixed kids? What a way to project the adults' misconstrued ideas on race onto kids who are yet innocent.
I hate to say it but after reading the article what first jumped to my mind was the social experiment of Randolph and Mortimer in Trading Places.
After many years of teaching I can say that no institutionalized system will rid us of racism or breed the cosmopolitan multiculturalism so many lust after (myself included). The family is the strongest mechanism of socialization, and as such breaking down walls can only occur within the home and among a child's strongest relationships. All we can do in schools is establish certain modes of thinking and foster skills and mentalities that accentuate and complement, rather than supplant, the lessons and values that are learned in the home.
I've watched kids at school playing at recess. They don't segregate at young ages..K-3. In 4th I saw it starting to happen and by 8th grade though I see them segregate themselves.
This is what I have witnessed as well, as a volunteer at my kids' elementary school. And anecdotally, my oldest daughter's group of school friends is all white (as is she) whereas my younger daughter's BFF is black and the other girls in her little clique are of a variety of backgrounds - Hispanic, Asian, white and black. They look like a junior UN delegation on the playground. Girls will be entering 5th & 3rd grades, respectively, this fall.
I haven't really talked about race with my kids. They know the US's racial history, in terms of slavery, the Civil War, and the Jim Crow era. But, we don't talk about what's going on right now. I'm not really sure how to approach the subject. I think I would like a program like the one described in the article, as a jumping point to discussion.
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