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Racial Bias In Schools Essay

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The racial and ethnic demographics of public school children generally stay the same through the course of their twelve years of grade school thus implementing a program where ethnic and racial diversity is encouraged and researched can help bring students together in Democratic beliefs of cultural, racial and ethnic acceptance. Through grade school Department of Defense (DOD) students have opportunity to make social connections with diverse race and ethnicities. Static social interactions give way to (in-group) (out-group) phenomena where the in-group perceives members of its group as more favorable than that of the out-group. Research has shown that biases can increase within the groups (Smith & Ho, 2002). For example, a child who attends …show more content…

According to Mark Engber of the University to Michigan on Improving Intergroup Relations in Higher Education: A Critical Examination of the Influence of Educational Interventions on Racial Bias, he agrees with Hewstone, Rubin, and Willis (2002) that intergroup bias can be interchangeably viewed through the construct of racial bias. Hewstone, Rubin and Willis (2002) explain that (the in-group) mentality forces those in a certain group to assess their membership favorably over those who are not group members (the out-group). The types of bias that currently exist, we get four: prejudice, stereotypes, affective reactions, and discrimination. (Dovidio et al., 2004; Mackie & Smith, 1998; Wilder & Simon, 2003). Prejudice can be defined as having negative thoughts, beliefs, feelings, emotions, and behaviors toward a person or particular qualities that belong to a social identifying construct. (Haddock, & Zanna 1993; Zanna & Rempel, 1998). Stereotypes can be defined as groups of beliefs or characteristics about members’ traits such as race, age, and sex; (Stephan, W. G., & Stephan, C. W. , 2001.) Affective reactions can be defined

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