I have many different memories of when I have
personally experienced incidents of prejudice as well as witnessing incidents of
prejudice. One memory in particular which
made an impact on me was when I witnessed an incident of prejudice that was based
on cultural and family practices. I was at the park with my children and a
group of school aged children began playing tag. As I was watching my children
play in the sand, I heard the group of boys say that they were all going to
chase and tag the girls and the boys agreed on the plan and laughed. They began
running around chasing the girls, then one of boys started to chase one of boys
who was wearing a topknot. The boy wearing the topknot yelled, “Why are you
chasing me? We said that we were going to tag the girls!” The other child
replied, “You are a girl. Look you are wearing a pretty scarf on your head like
a girl!” The boy replied, “It is not a scarf. It is called a topknot and that
is what boys in my family wear.” The two boys began yelling at one another. It
got quite intense and the boy with the topknot left the park crying. The group
of children looked at each other after the child left the park. One child said,
“That wasn’t nice. He is crying.” The boy replied, “I don’t care. He still
looked like a girl!"
This incident of prejudice diminished equity as
this child was discriminated against due to the difference in the way he dressed.
This child was teased and excluded for having a different appearance. My belief
is that this incident stemmed from the fact that the other child lacked the
awareness and knowledge of the cultural differences between himself and the
other boy. I couldn’t imagine the emotions that this boy was feeling. For me, this
incident brought on feelings of anger and frustration as I witnessed this
incident. I was angered at the fact that a child was teased and discriminated
against due to the fact that he was different than the societal norm and at the
same time I felt frustrated that this act of prejudice was coming from a child.
I kept thinking where did this child learn this? Did he learn these biases and
values from his family? Did his parents instill within him that it is fine to discriminate
against another human being? My feelings then quickly shifted to the child who
was the target of this act of prejudice. I couldn’t imagine how he was feeling.
He was so strong and tried to stand up for himself, but he could not.
When I think about this incident, I think that
education and knowledge would be needed to help turn this incident into an opportunity
for greater equity. We have to educate children that just because someone
looks, acts, dresses, or speaks differently doesn’t mean that we should make
assumptions about them. Explaining diversity will hopefully help children to
understand each other better. I did not know the parents of the child who was discriminating
against the other child, but I did know a few of the parents of the other
children. I did open up a dialogue about this incident with them when I saw them
at the park. They actually spoke to their children about what happened. It
needs to start somewhere, even if it is baby steps like talking to our children
and giving them the strategies with what they can do if they witness another
incident of discrimination or prejudice. My children were younger at that time,
but it brought forth a great discussion about what happened and how the boy was
mistreated. I think the key is to keep the dialogue going about discrimination
and prejudice rather than ignoring it and sweeping it under the rug.
Great example. I am glad that you talked to the parents, and they all addressed the issue to their children. You are right, even we may not able to change the institutionalized prejudice, but an action like this help to reduce racism. This is also a great reflection on how much time are we investing to teach children about culture differences and respect other cultures in our education system? We often assume that this is a family responsibility to educate children about diverse cultures, but school should take part of the responsibility as children spend more time at school than at home.
ReplyDeleteI applaud you for the way that you handled the situation. We take for granite that children are learning about discrimination and prejudice at home, but actually some parents don't even talk about it and some parents promote it with their actions and words toward others. As childhood professionals, because of the diversity that will be present in the classrooms, we should teach multicultural awareness, which is the ability to perceive and acknowledge cultural differences among people without making value judgments about these differences.
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