Multicultural Racism In Schools

In a typical American classroom, majority of the students are Caucasian. However, the few children of color usually goes unnoticed and treated unfairly because of the dominating race and the Westernized environment. Multicultural racism is an ascending issue in a western dominated educational system. Failure to educate students about the severity of racism often leads to prejudice and discrimination within our society. Because students become unaware of the different cultural backgrounds, values, and relationships surrounding them, cultural bias and perspective are created causing stereotypes and the division between different races. Racism is a dominating problem today in schools because schools lack to educate their students about the uniqueness …show more content…
Racism is the belief that one race is superior to another or all races. In a westernized education system, Caucasian is seen as ordinary because some people believe white are superior to all the other races. Because of this, racism and stereotypes have frequently been promoted by schools although it may have been unintentional. Racism has existed for a very long time in schools because children did not learn at a young age that racism is not acceptable. Many children are exposed to racism when they are young which makes a bigger impact on their thought processes and the person who they become. They learn racism through family, friends, the media, and schools. According to Derman-Sparks(17) and Brooksfield(94), children develop identity and attitude with what family members do, what society values, the shows they watch on the television, and children books. Majority of the materials they learn in school relates to American practices and American history but none of the materials being taught teaches the history of other cultures or their practices.“The materials in the classroom - the pictures of nursery rhyme characters decorating the walls, the dolls, the books - were 95 percent white and reflected the dominant Euro-American culture,” (Derman-Sparks, 18). Children have to keep learning in the same method as other children learned it decades ago. This causes all children, no matter the …show more content…
Racism not only causes prejudice and discrimination, but also provokes bullying, name calling, and stereotypes. Since racism and different cultures are not taught in schools, many people do not know how severe of an impact racism can have. Those who have not been exposed or have adapted to the accustomed way of westernized schooling often suffers from events such as suicide or depression. For some people, they know racism can be hurtful and stay away from making racist remarks. However, majority of the world’s population use it as a way to joke with peers for the amusement of themselves or others. According to Brooksfield(90), some of the stereotypical remarks that were made states “White Irish were portrayed as lazy, drunken brawlers, with a markedly inferior IQ...Blacks were alternatively lazy, happy, or violent; Pakistanis and Indians were sexually irresponsible having large families; and Gypsies were thieves out to mark your house as an easy target”. These stereotypes judged the entire race based on a cause that only a few people of that particular race was responsible for. On the other hand, anybody who is not Caucasian but speaks in a snotty tone and is stuck up tends to be teased by others for being too “white washed”, which is a term in slang used to describe a person who possessed those traits. Many people do not realize that being exposed to