racialbarriers

====As I stare out my third floor window I see the world before me, a horizon that stretches far more than the eye can see, into an endless panoramic view of blues. However, when I look down, I stare to the playground behind St. Lukes Catholic School, my eyes going wild trying to watch every movement, every game, and every child. My eye catches the blue pants and yellow polos along with the plaid skirts and white blouses of the children who frolic around the grounds, but one thing does not stand out like it used to in our past. Color segregation. In our current generation, we as students, young adults, and children alike, have broken a barrier that has stood in our way for so many years, invisible to the eye, stretching country wide, and to the depths of the unknown—or so I thought we had. As a youth culture growing up in the late 20th century and early 21st century, we have tried to break these barriers, but one thing has kept our views of the people of our world at bay—our social influences.==== ====In a society full of confusion and dislike for the races of the world, those that are not the human race, white supremacy; white students, young adults, and children are taught through interactions with our communities, media, and relatives, to say the least, that black is the detestable, the race of no return. Whites are taught that we are superior, the almighty power, and that there exists no other power greater than we. These stereotypes that are placed within a child’s head distort the pictures of their future; creating only dreams of an all white nation, a president who will always be white, a future where whites will rule, the list can go on and on. It is with the effects of our past, that these images, and falsifications still exist in the minds of our young today.==== ====In our past, generations of people have had their minds bleached with the hatred of black, not by their own decisions, but rather, by friends, parents, and most importantly the 1960s during the Civil Rights movement. The Ku Klux Klan, a prominent group of white supremacy leaders, originating as far back as the 1860s, has corrupted the minds of many young adults and much older in the time of the movement, and even before. We now teach of these white supremacist leaders as historical figures, men who threatened the lives of blacks for the color of their skin. History, a main subject in the education of our children, has been taught year after year, teaching about the history of our country, the success of the white man, the economics of our country and it’s role in society. The working class portrayed as the white population, and those in poverty, typically the black population, and many more. As Holly Sklar stated, “Imagine a country whose constitution once counted black slaves as worth three-fifths of whites. Today, black per capita income is about three-fifths of whites (Sklar 333). These social influences that have been integrated into our schools, and our communities along with our home lives, have led to a problem that has been growing endlessly until current generations have started to diminish it slowly. Stereotyping.==== ====One of the first things we notice about a person when we first meet them (other than their sex) is their race. We utilize this to our use only, accepting the notion Omi said, “Differences in skin color and other obvious physical characteristics supposedly provide visible clues to differences lurking underneath” (Omi and Winant 17). We should not be using skin color to distinguish one’s differences, or clues to who they are. A black man growing up in the Bronx in a family full of drug abusers is not necessarily going to be the same. One situation sticks firmly in my mind. In a 2001 featured film, “Save the Last Dance,” Derek Reynolds a young African American growing up in a family and social environment of drug abusers and gangs, played by Sean Patrick Thomas, had pushed passed the drugs and life as a gang member, in place of a life of his own, taking the path least traveled in his family. He was accepted in to medical school, striving with his grades, and pushing for what he wanted; however, when others looked at him on the outside, he was pictured as an equal to those, a drug abuser.==== ====We as a 21st century America have depended on these differences to get up to where we are today. These differences have strengthened our economy; our ancestors pushing blacks into our cotton fields, sweat shops, and homes as maids and servants. We do not learn about their effect to our economy, we do not learn about how they fought in the Civil War, we do not learn about how blacks invented items such as the cellular phone, almanac, blood plasma bag, refrigerator, and the elevator for example, staple items in an everyday life we all take for granted. Instead we have only learned about how they have destroyed our economy, how they populate our streets, raid our stores and homes, and take our tax dollars for incarceration. However, we will never learn about these without our own intuition to find it. As Omi and Winant stated in their article, “Racial Formation,” we have the ability to change the way we look at people, deleting the stereotyping, myths, and particular meanings of race, however the presence of a system of these racial ideologies have and still are a permanent feature in our US culture (17).==== ====Do you want to live in a culture where stereotyping and racial ideologies, are a permanent part of society, the implied way we Americans come to feel superior? Do you not want to live in a society where the term black isn’t used to describe the other human race? Don’t you want to live in a society instead where the term black, is used to express self-identity? These questions should not be hard to answer, but for some it is the most difficult task they may have to pursue if asked at random. We should be to the point of British politics, where Asian and Afro-Caribbean youth are adopting the term black as a way to express self-identity (Omi and Winant 16). Racism and stereotyping should not be the norm in the US culture, however, we have lived up to this and now it has been permanently stitched into the borders of our states, the center or our cities and towns, our politics and even into the text books of our schools.==== ====Can our current generations as future teachers, legislators, employers, and parents break these barriers for our children? We as future advocates of our children’s well being must be more in tune with our children’s wants and needs to be children. Not raising them as young adults when they are only seven dreaming one day to be an astronaut, princess, president, etc. In some schools, teachers are recommended only to teach about opportunities where all children can succeed in their future endeavors such as businessmen and, nurses, not president or, princesses (Bigler and Patterson 83). We need to break these barriers.==== ====As Jonathan Kozel observed in his book, __The Shame of the Nation__, teachers in school settings typically in the country, strive to educate students without the intrusion of the global market and job trends, rather they concern themselves with the important needs of childhood, happiness in being children (Kozel 286). We should be teaching watching our children growing in a society where color shouldn’t matter and children like those of Keith Miller, “Kids are kids, I’m not sure they see color. I think they see other kids” (Mehren). These are the societies, and environments our children should be growing up in, free of discrimination. As a child my own age, these were the environments I grew up in open minded, and living the life of a child, having fun and enjoying what we should, not worrying about my future just quite yet.==== ====As my childhood developed, I was introduced to the African American culture through family relations. I have an uncle whom is black, and two cousins as well, one who is married and the other who is dating interracially. However, as I grew into young adulthood, people around me were changing. Blacks were calling blacks nigger as a joke. Elders when encountered by blacks would act racist by making comments such as, “Those damn spooks, all they do is cause problems and trash our streets.” Are these the people I truly looked up to? My views started to change because of the action of whites. Do we suffer from our own stereotyping? As we stereotype, we are lowing the standards of those around us, which in the long run is supposed to make us, the white people, feel as the almighty; however, in the long run it is lowering our self esteem, especially those who don’t live up to their stereotypes and instead are surpassed by the stereotyped. As my views changed about our society and how we were dealing with the barriers that have been set before us, I created a survey to test those barriers, to see if we truly are breaking them. My perspective says yes, we are, but very slowly.==== ====The results were accumulated, however, they did not vary much, almost all white, and typically my age, undergraduate students between the ages of 18-20. As I read the results they were looked promising. As our education develops, we are involved with more open minded, socially accepting teachers, who teach on subjects such as race, gender, and sexuality, than in past generations, therefore, we hold different views on the racial boundaries, at least for the 33 few of the total population who responded. Racial barriers are breaking, slowly but surely as future generations develop and grow. 26 of the 33 who responded say we are breaking the barrier, which shows our allowing for the integration of the races into our lives.==== ====Experiencing cultures we never dreamed of even interacting with for some of us, is something that is allowing we as people to develop in society, allowing us to keep an open mind and to learn about the other ways of life rather than the white supremacy. As entry 33 stated,====  ====Being surrounded by many different cultures has opened my eyes and enabled me to learn about different ethnicities and ways of life…their different customs and what activities they participate in in different countries. These experiences have helped me to become more well rounded giving me an appreciation for diversity and change. (Stauffer)==== ====On the opposite side of life however, others disagree that integration has seared their brains to a point that they hate them instead of learning from their culture. This was very apparent when I read the response from entry, “IF anything it has only made me regress. Black people are rude towards white and unexcepting. I have no problem with anyone, but they make it difficult to get along with when you try to make conversation and they act like a snot” (Stauffer). So how has race affected us all as people in a society of mixed races? Do we as the white supremacy hold a grudge or has it switched as we’re developed?==== ====Race will only affect us if we allow it to, however the consequences either to white or black, will be there no matter the decision. It is up to us as people to understand that blacks are no different than whites, we are all the same, we are the human race, and our only difference is our color. With this notion, our children will grow up in a life that only most could have dreamed of in our past, a life unscathed of racial boundaries, ideologies, and stereotyping based on one’s color. We must educate our children in our schools, homes, and communities, that we are no different; instead, we are merely relatives, only different in the color of our skin. When we as parents, teachers, babysitters, and all educators alike can all, as Kozol states, allow our children to learn in schools whom are still given opportunities to dig till our hearts desire, poking into satisfactions of self discovery, defended from the interventions of the over confident, we will allow our children to learn in treasured places that will allow us all to remember and believe all of the possible (Kozol 300).==== ====The possible is what keeps my eyes wondering as I look out to the horizon of endless possibilities, seeing a future of children who are accepting, and willing to learn, and as my eyes slowly drift down to the playground of St. Lukes Catholic School I can watch children play and learn about the true meaning of friendship, citizenship, and the importance of the races of the world and our ability to be open minded. We as a 21st Century generation must come to the realization that Margaret Atwood stated; we are all a member of one race and only one race—the human race (Margaret Atwood quotes). We the 21st century generation, building everyday in our strength, our acceptance, and our integrity to succeed in everything we do now must become the teachers rather than the students. We must teach that it is with the power of our minds and ability to accept the things we can’t, and in return we can become one race, the human race free of color hatred by accepting our differences as flaws that accentuate our beauty, minds, and culture.====

====Patterson, Meagan M., and Rebecca S. Bigler. "Relations Among Social Identities, Intergroup Attitudes, and Schooling: Perspectives from Intergroup Theory and Research." __Contesting Stereotypes and Creating Identities: Social Categories____,__ __Social Identities____,__ __and Educational Participation__. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. 66-87. Patterson and Bigler, present a book of essays that look at all aspects of racism and the effect it has not only on children, but also families. The articles are separated to inform you by your topics. Their information and studies give in depth views from the perspectives of students and teachers, with in class observations and interviews. This source holds information that will be useful with the topic of the effects of racism and whether or not we as a group are breaking the racial barriers around us.==== ====Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. "Color-Blind Racism." __Race____,__ __Class____,__ __and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study__. 7th ed. New York: Worth, 2007. 131-38. Bonilla-Silva, author of many articles that deal with racism, wrote this article that held a powerful amount of information. The information that Bonilla-Silva informed the readers with was hard evidence with reactions from the people in our society. These aren’t just normal people; they are students, businessmen, and school administrators. Her look on Color-Blind racism is in depths look on the reactions or the people in society, but with the interest of her views as well. Her points are strong and understandable, raising the questions of are people like this. This article will help by using the personal reactions, as well as the views of a woman who has open views on the effects of racism and how we should go about fixing it.==== ====Kozol, Jonathan. __The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America__. New York: Crown, 2005. Jonathan is a writer who takes to account the many times he visits an area and the comparisons of all. His articles, mostly on education and the integration of race, have been proven to hold valuable information on the effects it has on children. In this book, he visited 60 public schools, mostly inner-city schools, where he has noticed the conditions growing worse since the Brown v. Board of Education. I’m using four chapters where there are views on several different areas, one that has turned out to be of interest of the National Horror hidden in plain view. These takes on the views of education have helped readers’ attempts to understand the world of education around us. The journals will help define the integration of racism and whether or not we are fixing the problems we are faced with on a regular basis.==== ====Kozol, Jonathan. "Still Separate, Still Unequal: America's Educational Apartheid." __Race____,__ __Class____,__ __and Gender in the United States__. 7th ed. New York: Worth, 2007. 644-58. Another Jonathan Kozol article, again, dealing with race and the education that is within the United States. In this article, Kozol speaks of the rise, rather than the decrease of racism in our schools, and the unequal separation that exists in the treatment and education of the races. Most want to believe that the racism has diminished, but on Kozol’s view it hasn’t. This article will give me information that may change my view on if racism has really diminished or not.====

Sklar, Holly. "Imagine a Country-2006." __Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study__ 7 (2007): 329-38.
====Stauffer, Tyler P. "Racial Views." Chart. __Google Docs__. 1 Feb. 2009. . This chart, the demographics of a survey that I have created about racial views, holds information that has given me insight to the thoughts of a select group of students. I’ve tried to get it around as much as possible, however some of the data is somewhat tampered because it’s not a variety of race like I hoped. Hopefully in the next few days before the paper comes to an end I plan to get more information and a variety of answer that will give a great overview of the looks of race and the racial barriers that we hope to have started to break.====

