My Grandmother 's Building A Young African American Boy

Imagine you were ten years old. What were you doing? Were you in a park? Were you playing with toys? Now look around at ten-year old’s today. There seems to be a noticeable shift. Most of them have some sort of electronic device of their own, whether it be a smartphone or a tablet. That shift becomes even more apparent if you were ten years old, 30 years ago versus if you were ten years old only eight years ago. In the essay “Tweens: Ten Going on Sixteen,” Kay S. Hymowitz suggests that tweens are growing up too fast. She states that while there are complex causes for this, “two major and fairly predictable themes emerged: a sexualized and glitzy media-driven marketplace and absentee parents” (Page 203). This and, “peer group form a vicious circle that works to distort the development of youngsters…,” according to Hymowitz (Page 203).

Once a person begins to realize that they are portrayed differently than others, their entire mind set changes. Black citizens decades ago had to deal with day in and day out feeling like

Many people usually just skip over what the beliefs of children are but, thats wrong children are the most effected by racism, segregation, and discrimination because they are the ones who will have to live with the outcome of all the marches, protest, and court cases about racism. For African American kids their thoughts were probably not shared that often due to the time period of the

Imagine you’re a little black girl, living in one of the most segregated cities in the South. A city where you not only had to obey your parents’ rules, but the rules of revengeful white men, who would do everything in their willpower to make sure you would die, if you didn’t. What little girl do you know, would like to be exposed to this type of unnecessary chaos? Little girls are supposed to be having fun, playing with baby dolls, and learning their ABC’s, not worrying about whether or not they would become the next victim of rape or be lynched by the Ku Klux Klan.

This article was one of the most if not the most shocking of all. I have never even considered the differences that African Americans must experience every day in an environment designed to grow and feed their self-image but this article proves that this may be destructing what was intended to flourish a child. It changed the way I think of fairness in discipline, as it does make perfect sense to consider the person’s race, culture, socioeconomic status, gender and ethnicity when applying any type of intervention with them, in any type of service. This would include educating yourself on their history as well. You must seek out understanding when engaging with someone whose background will be quite a different shade than what yours is painted. It has really made me curious about school policies and if they were constructed out of a historical root of racism and applied to transform the unaccepted into either a more acceptable, white American behavior or facilitate their path to their thought of place in society overall, such as prison or a homeless shelter. There is obviously a crisis in modern times and the impact it has may be one of the most of influential as the power of the educational institution on a child must be largely one holding the most

Studs Terkel (1980) relates C. P. Ellis' story about how his experiences organizing a union opened his eyes about how corporations treat minorities, and resulted in a new understanding of the people around him even though he was a former Klansman. I have never been in the Klan or organized a union, but a similar turning point for me came for me when I saw the movie "The Eye of the Storm," about Jane Elliot's experiment with white schoolchildren in Riceville, Iowa. This experiment demonstrated to me how children respond to cultural cues first from their parents and family members, but then through the institutions they are forced to participate in like school; the church; other families and supervisory agencies. If even white children can be taught to discriminate against other white children on something as arbitrary and insubstantial as eye color, then how easy it must be to train them to respond in denigrating ways to people with different skin color, body shapes or language for example, I realized. This changed my perspective on racism and ethnicity and while I have since done much research and believe education is the secret, the way I have decided to implement change in my own life, is to speak out when I hear someone making a denigrating comment.

On my way into high school, I began to flourish mentally. I already knew who I was as a person and who I wanted to become. My environment, although it was negative, is what truly turned me into the person I remain today and the person I happen to be. The America we live in today still has some growing up to do. My eyes began to open the in the summer of 2012.My family decided to take a trip to Florida in the middle or racial mayhem. The Trayvon Martin case ravaged Florida and it seemed like every television channel and radio station was broadcasting some part of it. Street posts clasped in “Justice for Trayvon” posters and calls for George Zimmerman, his killer, to be jailed for racial profiling him and murdering the 17 year old. My child like

Due to the United States’ rich history of racism and discrimination, that history still lives on today in the twenty-first century. The reason racism occurs in the United States is because the fact that it is very much diverse in every crevice of every state and in every corner throughout the country. Even though racism is still happening, it is not as critical compared to how the different colored skins were treated back in the mid-1900s, especially for the African Americans. As said by Rosa Parks, “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” Our children look up to us as role models, and whatever the actions might be, it means something significant to them and they eventually will follow our leads

Overall, it is saddening that we are still living through this today. As Rosa Parks once said, “Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall

Humans make up their own perceptions of reality which brings them further from the truth of what really goes on. Depending on who you are some people are able to see clearer and take life for what it really is, while others hide behind their own perceptions. Millennial’s in particular are constantly hiding behind their own perceptions to what reality really is, and today that is hurting them. Many only see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. In my own life I have gone through many what students would call “traumatizing events”. As a child I was made fun of for smiling and being happy all the time. I was bullied for the way I acted and called ugly on multiple occasions. When I look back on those things all I do is laugh and think how stupid, but in elementary, middle, and even part of high school, appearance, personality, and other people’s opinions mattered to me. I went through my share of days of depression but both my parents would constantly encourage me to keep going and not look away from it, but face my fears. I am a firm believer in the saying “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” because had I not faced my fears, had I not stood up to the bullies, had I not continued along with life and avoided everything and everyone I would not have realized or learned to stand up for myself, or how to stand up for others. So now when people try to hurt me emotionally or in some other way I can just laugh and know that I don’t need to care about what other’s think I just need to care about what I think. So standing up to the fears of life and learning how to not be offended when people make certain comments is all apart of growing up in life. As a African American myself I have people ask time and time again why I’m not offended when people use the “N” word or people make “racist” jokes. I tell them

Society has taught that African Americans are bad people and should be shunned. There was a recent study on children and different types of dolls. There were two dolls one black and the other white. Children were asked to hand Clark the nice doll “a majority of

S.A. and his family were facing imminent homelessness after his mom was diagnosed with a physical disability. Due to a lack of resources during that traumatic time period, S.A. missed many days of school, which caused him to be behind. He is now in 6th grade, but does not meet grade level requirements. He obtains a 4.5 grade level in math and reading, which could retain him from entering middle school. With his family’s involvement at ForKids, S.A. is required to partake in the Hot Meals & Homework Program. ForKids has also been able to provide services that would assist S.A. in coping with his learning disability. Through our educational program, our goal is to get S.A. to meet his grade level requirements.

In regards to the conversation of children staying true to their African American culture, Parents must also teach their children on how to love themselves and not let the white society change who they are. Other reasons for African American children feeling self-hatred for their skin color is that they are not content with their features. African American children with dark skin complexion have to deal with the issues of colorism. They may have thoughts where they’re not feeling good enough about themselves, and believe that if they were to look white or have a lighter skin complexion then maybe people will start paying more attention to them. I happen to be that kid also because I to hated being and I thought that by being light skin I would

Recently a young girl was “traumatized” after a racist comment was made to her regarding her skin tone and the fact that the princesses she dressed up as didn't have a dark skin tone. The young girl was just enjoying herself until a rude mother turned around and said “I don’t know why you’re dressed up for because Queen Elsa isn’t black", To which Samara’s mother replies asking her what she had meant. The women's children piped in, pointed at Samara and said "you’re black and black is ugly". Things like these will make a child begin to hate the skin they are in and could result in numerous self image

Everyone has had that secret moment with their friends that no one knows about. You know, that moment when one friend says the code word an all of you all burst out laughing. The “insider” that only your friends and you know about and no one can relate to unless they were there. Trending around the country is the new hashtag phenomenal #growingupblack. The hashtag has become a fun way for the black community to bond together and reminisce about childhood memories. Although, the hashtag started on social media the statement of the hashtag #growingupblack has a deeper message. In between the lines #growingupblack is a form of activism that is continuously spreading with the help of social media. The hashtag #growingupblack is the ultimate insider that the black community nationwide can relate too. The hashtag growingupblack is self- explanatory. The hashtag recounts the good, bad and hilarious moments about the experiences of growing up black. Rather, it recounts the time you went to the store and your mother told you not to touch nothing or that memory when your mother warned you to be in the house before the streetlight came on, it takes one down memory lane. For, many the hashtags brought back laughable moments. This hashtag created rib-tickling visuals (meme) of ones most precious moments. The hashtag #growingupblack was an open opportunity for the black community to willingly embracing and accept, the things that may have been extremely embarrassing moments in one’s