My oldest, a junior in high school, received an assignment in class the other day to write a short paper on who inspires you. Immediately she was excited about relating how a book she read over the summer, "Lone Survivor" helped her to fulfill her desire to run cross-country. Marcus Lutrell's account of preparing for and surviving SEALs training was to her, truly inspirational.
However, that's not what the teacher had in mind. Instead, the topic was further defined; the entire class had to write about who taught them not to be racist. As you may imagine, this lead to quite the interesting discussion when she told me last night. My first question to her was, "So, when did you stop thinking, as a white person, that you are superior to people not like you?" Of course her response was that she has never felt superior to anyone because they are different. Next I asked if everyone in class felt that way. She was smart enough to realize that she has no idea what other kids really think about other people.
My guess is that there are at least a few kids out of the 25 or so in the class that exhibit some racism. My conclusion; some kids are going to pretend they aren't racist and some are going to pretend they used to be but were inspired to change. The disturbing aspect of this is that the teacher appears to hold the presumption that we are all racists until someone teaches us otherwise. I would argue that our natural inclination is to have no bias but some of us learn to favor our own race from someone we trust or through individual negative experiences that are attributed to a whole group.
Any comments? (other than I should just relax and let my kid do her homework)
However, that's not what the teacher had in mind. Instead, the topic was further defined; the entire class had to write about who taught them not to be racist. As you may imagine, this lead to quite the interesting discussion when she told me last night. My first question to her was, "So, when did you stop thinking, as a white person, that you are superior to people not like you?" Of course her response was that she has never felt superior to anyone because they are different. Next I asked if everyone in class felt that way. She was smart enough to realize that she has no idea what other kids really think about other people.
My guess is that there are at least a few kids out of the 25 or so in the class that exhibit some racism. My conclusion; some kids are going to pretend they aren't racist and some are going to pretend they used to be but were inspired to change. The disturbing aspect of this is that the teacher appears to hold the presumption that we are all racists until someone teaches us otherwise. I would argue that our natural inclination is to have no bias but some of us learn to favor our own race from someone we trust or through individual negative experiences that are attributed to a whole group.
Any comments? (other than I should just relax and let my kid do her homework)
