Racism
This week we were asked to choose one stressor from the list that I are someone I know exerienced as a child. I will share how I or the person coped with and compensated for that. I reviewed the list and at first I was going to talk about a natural disaster that I went through on April 27, 2011 in Birmingham, Alabama, but due to I went through this as an adult and not a child I decided not to talk about this matter.I chose to talk about Racism. Race is used to categorize people's outward appearance (Berger.2016.p13). I have never expereince racism as a young child. I guess because I attended all black schools from daycare all the way to high school. Once I went off to college for my undergraduate degree, I was mixed in with other races besides African American which I wanted to do since I had been with the same race for so long. I do not have a problem with people that is the same race as me, but I wanted to go to college with other people which helped me learn how to be social with others that does not have the same color skin as me. I still did not experience racism. My husband shared with me that when he was a young child he did experience being called the "N" word by another little boy. I was very amazed by the information that he gave me and was pleased by the outcome of the story. He said when the little boy called him that he did not know what the word meant. He stated to me that it had to be a bad word because the little boy facial expression told it all. My husband went home and told his mom and dad what had happen and they explained to him that what he was called is a harsh word that blacks were called in the past when racism was a big issue and since that is the past we still have adults speaking this harsh word around their young children who repeated this to you. He went on to tell me his parents went up to the school to speak with the principal to see what could be done about this situation. The principal said that they were going to put a plan in place to talk about racism and how it effects in society. The principal also made the little boy apologies to my husband and she also talked to the little boy parents about eliminating the use of racism and being more positive to others at school. According to Smidt, "As children begin to work out who they are (self-identity) they also try to work out who they are similar to and different from in some ways" (Smidt.2013.p85).
My husband coped with this situation by talking to his parents who talked openly to him about race, ethnicity,and religion. I told him your parents did a great job talking to you about this complicated topic. It's important that young children learn to live and work closely with people whose race, religion, or culture may be different from their own. My husband said this helped him grow up and not be afraid because they were encouraging him to look over racism. Parents who have learned to connect with people different from themselves are likely to have children who develop these immportant skills as a young child. My husband is a product of developing these skills to look over racism and continue being successful.
I would like to know more about the country of Russia. Russians are racist towards the people whom they feel are not ethnically. They are also racist towards Africans. One kind of stressor that impact the development of children is stress plays an important role in russian language. Stress in Russia is not fix, but it is an important part of correct pronunciation in Russian (masterrussian.com).To minimize the harm is to memorize stressed vowel for each Russian word you learn and listening to native speakers, radio, movies, and videos.
This is a Russian Language Alphabet chart that I found interesting becuase it shows you the symbol of each letter.
References
Dolamic, L., & Savoy, J. (2009). Indexing and searching strategies for the Russian language. Journal Of The American Society For Information Science & Technology, 60(12), 2540-2547. doi:10.1002/asi.21191
Berger, K. S. (2016). The developing person through childhood (7th ed.). New
York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Smidt, S. (2013) The Developing Child in the 21st Century( 2nd edition)
Hi Vonecia, Thanks for sharing your husband's story. I think sometimes children can be cruel towards others when they hear things at home that they just interpret on its way. As children copy from others, I think not only as teachers we have to be a role model for the little ones; parents and family members should do it as well. As I grew up in my home country, I never experienced racism as a child, but I did experience it as an adult in United States, unfortunately stereotypes mark people's attitudes towards others.
ReplyDeleteI would like to share with you that in the state of Hawaii the majority of cases of racism in school are from Hawaiian children towards Caucasian children. The reason is because older native Hawaiians blame American Caucasians from all of the cultural values they lost including their native language when they became the 50th state. Hawaiians are very friendly towards other races but not to Caucasians.
Alejandra
Im glad the school took your husbands concerns as a child seriously and put a plan into place. Sometimes children are not aware of how their actions effect others. I am shocked to hear that all African American schools exist where you grew up. Where I live I have never heard of this, I did not even think it was leal to have a one race school. Thank you for sharing your experiences!
ReplyDeleteJessica Arnold
Hi Jessica,
DeleteThanks for responding to my blog this week. I should have been more clearer their are lots of different schools that are mix with different race, but from a child until graduating from high school I went to an all black school my entire life until I went off to college. I mean other races could have came to my school, but they did not.
Vonecia West
Vonecia,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your husband's experience with racism. I have taught my children that we are all the same on the inside. Part of the reason I moved my family to Seattle was so they would be exposed to different cultures and races. (we come from a predominately white middle class community). When my son was just about two years old he saw someone of a different race for the first time and he cried and screamed; it was very embarrassing but not his fault. My mother grew up in the south so she new a lot about racism from her childhood. Even though she was white she was very poor. Many of her friends were poor black children. My mom told me once when she was little the KKK burnt a cross in her front yard because her dad helped a black man by giving him work and a place to stay. This was very traumatic for her as a young child. I am sorry there is so much ignorance in the world still today. I will be reading more about the situation in Russia; thank you for enlightening me.
Susan
Vonecia,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your husband's experience with racism. I have taught my children that we are all the same on the inside. Part of the reason I moved my family to Seattle was so they would be exposed to different cultures and races. (we come from a predominately white middle class community). When my son was just about two years old he saw someone of a different race for the first time and he cried and screamed; it was very embarrassing but not his fault. My mother grew up in the south so she new a lot about racism from her childhood. Even though she was white she was very poor. Many of her friends were poor black children. My mom told me once when she was little the KKK burnt a cross in her front yard because her dad helped a black man by giving him work and a place to stay. This was very traumatic for her as a young child. I am sorry there is so much ignorance in the world still today. I will be reading more about the situation in Russia; thank you for enlightening me.
Susan
Thank you for sharing such a heartbreaking experience. I know even now these things must be difficult to share. Thank you for making us aware of the situation in Russia. I was ignorant to the facts you pointed out and would like to become more educated on the subject.
ReplyDeleteHeather