Racism can be a difficult subject to discuss, but it is an important one. As educators, we have an important and powerful role in helping shape the minds of the future generations. When it comes to educating individuals on racism, it is important to be cautious of what we teach and how we teach it, as we can easily recreate narratives through expressing our personal beliefs and understandings of the world. When I first heard the term “racism”, I was in the fourth grade. In the same class, we also learned about slavery. Through the lessons and discussions we had, I believed that racism could only exist between white and black people and I did not notice the link between racism and slavery. It wasn’t until later on that I began to understand that racism can happen to any race and that it is rooted in our history – which leads to the term systemic racism.
Systemic racism rooted deep down in our history and is what causes people to have the worldviews that they have. With that, the narratives, our worldviews, and the worldviews of our students are typically shaped by what they are exposed to – this can be through their own family members, friends, or even what they see on the media. It is our role as educators to encourage the students question these beliefs and narratives by providing tools or questions to help them reflect on why they believe certain things. For example, helping them understand that racism doesn’t just happen because people are mean or they “just think that way”, it is because there is something that happened that caused them to think that way. In addition, it is also our role to understand how systematic racism affects our lives, as well as the lives of each of our students, because if you want to make a difference and change something, it is crucial to understand what you are trying to change.
As a person from the minority, my viewpoint will be different from others. With that, something I appreciated that this seminar group did was giving us identity cards that helped encourage us to see things from a different viewpoint. Understanding that each student has a different viewpoint is also important to remember and it is also important to help our students understand this.