Reviewing Racism

Everyone has prejudices the most common of them run along the lines of race. I think that one of the most important aspects of teaching is knowing how you teach your students. There are all types of students in a classroom and whether intentional or not educators can treat students differently based on prejudices. 

Attending the anti-racism seminar was really a great addition to the racism conversations that we had already had in class. I think the idea of self and understanding where each individual is coming from is more valuable than just saying that there is no such thing as race or trying to ignore it. Regina brought up points about self awareness as well as the cultural construct that has shaped our ideals on what is acceptable; because we all come from unique cultural situations we are all slightly different and approach the idea of race differently. 

I feel like the main point I walked away with from the seminar was that we all deal with race differently and that is alright so long as we all understand that it is there, it is an issue, and it is shaped by society and our culture. To address this in my personal life I feel like I need to stop trying to be color blind and learn to look past people and learn to see individuals personalities. In the classroom this would look slightly different because my goal would be to not only know each student's “self” but to also model and teach this philosophy for interaction so that the students could implement it on a peer level. I want to live my life in a way I'd be proud to have my students know about and copy. With this in mind I approach the idea of race.