Arguments Against Racism In Schools

A person should be judged on the content of their character and not the pigmentation of their skin. Also, judgment should not be based on a complexion because that’s all the naked eye can see. We cannot read the hearts of mankind to know their true intentions. It’s sad to say that racism is still very much here in this day and age. Even though it can be perceived as subtle, due to the fact that it is not as transparent and in the open for everyone to quickly see. Many still experience racism in the new millennium. The education system in the United States of America is known to express racism in a very subtle manner, especially when it comes on to the treatment of the students.

A new form of racism that is currently being expressed in many

schools is overlooking a student’s skin pigmentation and cultural background.

In an article called “Colorblindness the new racism by Afi Scruggs, she talks about a young African American student named Wooten who had to do a project on his heritage. One problem of the biggest problems that Wooten faced was that he was unaware of African heritage. In class, he would mostly learn about European descent and the majority of the students in his class were of African descent. Wooten was confused on what to talk about because he never learned about

African heritage in the class. He went to the speak to the school’s director who was caucasian, but she could not give him any good advice. She told him that what he learned was in the curriculum and she could not change it. When he asked why is Africa not incorporated into the curriculum, she could not give him an answer. The most she could tell him is that the exclusion of African culture was not racially biased. This is can be deemed as racism because it is unfair to not learn about many cultures and different types of people. It is also unfair to give out an assignment asking students to elaborate on their specific group of people when the information was never taught to them. It is as if their heritage is of no importance. Nowhere in the curriculum is Africa ever mentioned, to some students with African heritage they would feel as if they are not as important as those students who have a European background. Even though the director may say the curriculum is not racially biased, it is because the curriculum fails to incorporate all races and cultures equally. Also, one thing that is statistically shocking is that 80 percent of teachers in America are caucasian and more than 40 percent of the student body is African American. It’s pretty evident that the educational system looks racially bias according to the statistics. When the student, later on, asked the teacher for help she insisted on giving him less challenging work. This made the student feel incapable and incompetent, it's as if his intelligence is being downgraded.
Another common misconception is that racism only exists between two races. This is not true, the only reason as to why we feel that racism only exists between the two races is because we see it depicted in the media more. Racism does not only exist between blacks and whites. Many other races experienced discrimination as well. For example in an article called “ California school’s Arab mascot draws ire” by Brett Kelman, he talks about how a school’s mascot doesn’t depict the Arab culture in a good way. Coachella Valley high school in California has a football team named the Arabs. The teams mascot is a cartoon Arab character. This Arab character has a gold tooth, a beard that is unkept, and not to mention looks like a pirate. This mascot caused great concern because a few of the children that attend the school are Arab. This mascot was not only offensive it gave a wrong impression of the Arab culture. The American – Arab anti-discrimination committee in Washington was applaud by this mascot. They went on to chastise the education officials for allowing such stereotyping to occur, especially so openly. They continued on to say “ by allowing continued use of the term and it’s imagery, you are enforcing the negative stereotypes. This is true because as a new generation of children emerges and see this type of imagery, they are going to associate Arabs with negativity.