People 's Life Experiences Make Them Who They Are

My first awareness of racial identity and diversity occurred when I was in Year 3. Having being raised acknowledging acceptance of people of racial or cultural difference my thoughts of children of colour were positive and impartial. However, one day a boy in my class of Sri Lankan descent got into trouble with another student, but only the Sri Lankan boy was asked to go to the principal’s office. During our lunch break he came over to a group of us and told us that he thought he was the one that got into trouble ‘because he was ‘black’’. I remember thinking to myself, ‘why would he get into trouble just because he was black?’ It was in fact that both boys

As a young child, I lived life colorblind, unable to grasp the concept of race or skin color. Growing up in Florida as the only Asian in my elementary school and never being bullied for being different, I assumed everyone was white, including me. But then came that earth-shattering epiphany: I realized I wasn’t white. I started to notice that not every supermarket sold Pocky or bubble tea and that it’s not common to get money in shiny, red envelopes on New Year’s. I realized that not everyone knew how to use chopsticks, that not everyone ate rice with every meal, and that when some people spoke slowly to me, it’s not because they were trying to articulate, but because they thought I didn’t understand English.

A popular notion says a child is born “color-blind” and remains color-blind until they reach adolescence. The problem with this concept is that people believe it to be a positive idea. However, it actually presents a damaging ideology – it suggests that race should not be a factor when trying to determine the type of person an individual is. I see it as an unsophisticated approach to view people because race is a vital part of our existence. Race is an attribute that makes individuals differ from one another, and the problem is not the differences in the colors of our skin. The problem is that we attempt to detach ourselves from the reality of being racially different. Racism will seem to inevitably exist, and in order to even try to end the malice, parents should begin teaching children about racism the right way.

I never knew that there was a big social differentiation between who hung out with who dependent upon race. To be very blunt, the ratio of black to white people in my school was about 4:1. I was a very quiet girl especially during my sixth grade year. In seventh grade I began to open up more, but this caused frequent altercations. As people began to know my name I recruited names such as “preppy” and “white girl”. I found the phrase “white girl” to be ironic considering the fact that I am fully Hispanic. When I corrected anyone who believed I was white, I would often get “I didn't know you were mexican, you look like you’re white!”. These accusations and the shocked looks on the faces of those who knew the truth never disappeared. Being a Senior in High-School and knowing most of my fellow classmates, I still frequently get the same comments or faces of those who have never thought twice about my race because I “look white”or I “act white”. Through the years of receiving comments like this, I've come to the realization that these judgements of people based upon their appearance happen all of the time. I will admit to doing this myself and giving the same comments as I have gotten. These racial judgements don't just come with African American or Caucasian

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.

A race is a group of people who see themselves, and are seen by others, as having hereditary traits that set them apart (Hughes & Kroehler, 2013, p. 213). People naturally make judgements about a person based on their looks, especially when they don’t share the same hereditary triats. I have judged a person based on what they looked like without even knowing them. You have to make a conscious effort to change the way you think. You truly can’t judge a person until you know who they are, which means looking past their outter apperance. In our book they talk about a little boy named Gregory who had the outer apperance of a white person. Later people found out that his father was actually black and because of that he was then viewed as black (Hughes

When you look around in a public area, you are able to see numerous amounts of skin colors interacting with one another. Although, it wasn’t always like that. People of all our races weren’t able to sit at the same table without causing uproar, especially in schools. As a matter of fact, Caucasians and African Americans were not even allowed to attend the same school. One famous story that is forever marked down in history is the Little Rock Nine because their bravery in pursuing an education.

In this excerpt I will be touching on how Brayan, a 10 year old, was experiencing racism in a mostly white populated school in the late 2000s and early 2010s. I will provide examples from different times in his life when he experienced any racial behavior shown towards him or any other of his classmates during the period that he attended middle school. I will also provide outside examples of racism occurring in today’s world, with different sources. I will also explain how this experience helped shaped his view on different aspects of life and how it changed the way he approached life in general. His experienced help him become better as a person and as his life progressed he never showed a certain individual favoritism because he knows

When I was younger I was always teased and bullied for my voice, my actions and even the way I spoke. I grew up in a mildly diverse school. I went to Dunbar Middle School in Little Rock, Arkansas. My classmates would call me names like “White boy” or “Gay boy” because of the way I talked. I remember growing up hearing these things, and often thinking that it was normal. But in reality it wasn’t, no one should ever have to go

My first day at the Haitian Youth and Community Center of Florida (HYCCF), have most of the kids surround me from ages 3 to 4. The children stared eagerly as they challenged the fact that I looked very different from them, one little girl stated, “You’re white and I am black, see.” Her comment and ability to observe that there was indeed a difference, shocked me. According to Keller, Ford, and Meacham, “studies of person perception in children have shown that before children are 7 years old, they very often use physical appearance in describing others” (1978). The young girl was obviously going through the process of social comparison, however rather than comparing my abilities to hers as Myers and Twenge would say (2013); the young girl was socially comparing herself to me in a more physical sense, such as, skin color, different texture of hair, and other physical features. The young girl displayed thorough concept of self-knowledge. As Lewis would say, “There is one thing, and only one in the whole universe which we know more about than we could learn from external observation” (1952). For example, he was elaborating on the concept

In a Learning Experiences with Young Children class I took during my time at Auburn University, we watched a video about recognizing and teaching diversity in the classroom. In this video, the teacher demonstrated to the children that nobody is just black or white, but rather something more complex. She mixed paints in various shades of peaches, tans, and browns to create a custom color that matched the child’s skin tone. At the end of the activity,

Psychological research, however suggests when exposed to the awareness of race and ethnicity negatively, young children develop profound discrimination,

Growing up, I have always been considered different. Whether it was my skin color, background or my personality. I've always felt like I was in exile in my own community. Ever since kindergarten, I excelled in the classroom. My trust for knowledge pushed me to achieve in and outside the classroom as well. However, my intellect was a blessing and a curse. It was always hard to make friends. All through elementary school, I would be bullied every day for no apparent reason. I would be so frustrated that I would yell at my mother and mistreat my little brother. I allowed the opinions of others affect how I would treat my own family. As I reflect on these painful memories, I don't believe I was bullied because I was black. I know that I was bullied

According to the article, “Interacting with Children and Youth on Issues of Diversity and Bias”, children develop cultural and racial recognition and attitudes at the age of two through twelve. Children gradually develop cultural and racial perspective from an uncomplicated awareness to a more complicated understanding. Children at the age of two are just aware about physical characteristics, like eye shape, color, skin and hair color. At the age of three and four children are aware about their own and other people’s physical characteristics. They will ask their parents and educators how they got their physical characteristics like skin, hair and eye color. At the age of five, children begin to frame their own ethnicity. From six to eight,

Actually getting to know people in spite of our preconceived ideas about them or what the color of their skin can radically change how we see each other. This is the only way we will be able to bridge the divide between races and social groups. The biggest obstacle in our way is the misconception that one group of people hold higher value over another, that one group is better than another. We all have differences, but it is those differences that make each of us unique and special, not less than or