I find this week’s topic a tricky topic to write about; I lack confidence in having a voice due to my heritage. One needs to feel comfortable to comment racialized identities, as it intersects our daily lives in every aspect. There are many conflicting views due to the institution of power behind the racial class hierarchy. I have chosen to reflect a quote from Nelson Mandela, which I support. He says, “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of [their] skin, or [their] background, or [their] religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human than its opposite” (–1994, from his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”) [1] No child is born with hate in their heart, it is the nature of humanity, to love and be nurtured and sustained but often our environments for growth and development are influenced by both positivity and negativity, which shape our views and valves. “All children grow up surrounded by and absorbing the socially prevailing positive and negative messages about themselves and others, which comes from media: from educational, religious, and legal institutions; and from the behaviour and beliefs of the important adults in their lives.” (Derman-Sparks, Edwards, Goins 2020, p.106) If children can be taught to love, it is essential to invest time, effort, and professional development to create a nurturing environment that children can prosper free from oppression. 

As a pre-service teacher, my journey towards my teaching pedagogy’s professional development is to navigate the turmoiled waters of social injustice confidently. This involves understanding the many ism’s created in society. In the case of racial identity, it is vital to recognize the constructs of racism. “The concept of race is a socially and politically created, unscientific idea that divides people into racial groups ranked as superior and inferior, supported by misinformation and bias” (Derman-Sparks, Edwards, Goins 2020, p. 108) “In a society where systemic racism exists, everyone has a racialized identity, an identity that holds power in the life of each person” (Derman-Sparks, Edwards, Goins 2020, p. 106) This here is key to the issue, power, and who has it intentionally and unintentionally. Power has many definitions; in reference to racial identities, it is defined as “the possession of control, authority, or influence over others.” [3] Hopefully, by addressing the power dynamics within the classroom and school, we can educate the young to take that knowledge into their communities. Through healthy education, there can be change.

This week my classmate presented Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin. I had to listen to this book a few times as I didn’t feel I received the complete message. The book is beautifully illustrated about the visual difference of completion, skin beauty, and being happy in our skin. The text does touch on the world being a better, more beautiful place with all of our different skin tones, but I felt it missed out on teaching the importance of not discriminating against others for their skin. Although the text is all about racial diversity, I felt the text-only focused on the skin; it did not give insight into how or why we are the way we are. For this topic, I would have chosen the text, All The Colors We Are: The Story Of How We Get Our Skin Color by Katie Kissinger. I like how this texts address our skin tones like shades of the same spectrum and the reasons as to why they are different at all. 

When it became time to discuss the text as a group, I do not believe the facilitation was model in a supportive way, the views of the facilitator directed and the conversations. Turning into a conversation into a nip pick about who can and can’t be oppressed when I believe the message should have been directed not on the who can be oppressed but how we can correct the oppression in our classrooms. The world is taken great strides into correcting the social injustice in this world. Everyone needs to do their part. Be a voice to those who feel they do not have one and offer an inclusive and nurturing environment where we can all feel comfortable in our skin. Helping students understand that we should never judge a book by its cover will help them to understand we all are unique and have amazing gifts to contribute to conversations and the community.

Works Cited

[1]Nelson Mandela’s Most Inspirational Quotes – ABC News (go.com)

Nelson Mandela quote: No one is born hating another person because of the… (azquotes.com)

[2]Power | Definition of Power by Merriam-Webster (merriam-webster.com)

Derman-Sparks, L., Olsen Edwards, J., & Goins, C.M. (2020).Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves (2nd ed). NAEYC