Stereotypes Of Racism

I grew up in a very racist family. Both my father and mother would make insulting remarks about our African American/Somalian neighbors, and my father, who is a 50-year-ols white man, would often alienate and antagonize with many of our teenage African American/Somalian male neighbors, all because of the color of their skin. When I was younger, I was somewhat uncomfortable with what they were doing and saying, but I didn’t think too much of it because it was normal for me. However, now that I am an adult myself, and a teacher-to-be, I am extremely uncomfortable with the stereotypes that those teenagers were burdened with, and I am enraged by the stereotypes that my future students are going to be bombarded with and plagued by throughout their …show more content…
In other words, racism is believing that one person’s race is better than another race. According to an article by Pachter et al. (2010), Racism can also be defined as “negative beliefs, attitudes, actions, or behaviors that are based on phenotypic characteristics or ethnic affiliations” (p. 61). Racism has changed so much over the years. In the past, racism often looked like slavery, like in the 1800’s, or in the Jim Crow laws that were prevalent from the 1870’s until the 1960’s (Moore, 2015). However, today racism looks slightly different. Today, Racism looks often like unfair treatment by law enforcement, getting poor service in restaurants and stores, being followed by security, false accusations, and much more than that (Pachter et al. 2010 p. 36). The majority of these incidents are happening to the younger generation between the ages of 8 and 18. Much of the racism can come from the school system as well. A policy known as No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) altered the education system in many ways, especially in testing. Alongside that, NCLB has also fed into the notion that there are differences between African American intelligence and the intelligence of those who are white in skin color (Wun 2014 p. 462-463). This article also …show more content…
in 2010 that surveyed 227 students between the ages of 8 and 18, and some of the questions that they were asked had to do with shopping, some with legal system, and many of them had to do with school and how these students are being treated by teachers, security, and other students in their schools. For example, 37.3 percent of students between the ages of 8 and 13, and 35.4 percent of students between the ages of 14 and 18 were accused of something they didn’t do at school. Another example is that 34.7 percent of students between the ages of 8 and 13, and 37.0 percent of students between the ages of 14 and 18 were treated unfairly by a teacher. Or lastly, 42.5 students between the ages of 14 and 18 were assumed as not smart of intelligent because of the color of their skin (p. 38). Many students are being targeted, falsely accused, and believed to be unintelligent because of the color of their skin, and this needs to be