Racism has been a significant issue in the world for a long time. One area where racism has been rampant is in education. If racism in education would be abolished, this would act as an important step to ending it in general. Racism is thus defined as the prejudice or discrimination that is often directed to people of different races. Many people think that racism ended during colonial times. However, this is not the case because racism in the education sector is still evident. Racism is widespread in the field of education and is often experienced by students, parents, teachers, and workers.
As mentioned earlier, it started way back during the colonial period and during that time, as the colonists traded goods, they came across black people. Since they had never seen black people, they perceived them as being inferior. The blacks were not given education and this continued for many centuries. Even in the 17th century, the black slaves were neither taught how to read nor write. In the 18th century, some black slaves taught themselves how to write and read and began teaching others, and this was when the issue of racism became rampant. There were schools for the whites and schools for the blacks (Cole & Blair, 2006). Racism continued for many years until when Rosa Parks decided to sit in a bus that belonged to the whites. During that time, racism started taking another course. Laws concerning civil rights were passed. However, despite that racism still continued and it appears to be stronger now than in the past. My position on the topic of racism is education is that it has brought adverse effects in education than positive ones and if people need to establish a better society that is free of racism, they should fight against it especially in education.
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This discussion will be based on why we need to end racism in education. In the modern society, different cultural and ethnic groups populate the same schools. Thus, with this vast number of individuals, there is naturally a lot of tension between these diverse groups (Cole & Blair, 2006). This tension leads to the rise of hate groups in schools. Whether it is white against blacks or blacks against the whites or other groups, they present numerous problems in the steady flow of education, and that is why there is need to abolish racism in education
Since people come from different races, they all have different cultures. Culture refers to people’s way if life. Thus, the first reason why we need to end racism in education is that it has made many students discard their cultures as well as their parental values. When students ate discriminated against or teased because of their cultures, they develop a negative attitude towards their culture. Due to this, they try to imitate to the other cultures and end up abandoning their culture and adopting the mainstream culture so as to stop prejudice. Constantine and Sue (2006) argue that leaving one’s culture eventually leads to confusion (Constantine & Sue 2006). Those discriminated against do not understand who they are and where they are going. This has a psychological and social effect to those subjected to discrimination hence affecting their lives in a negative manner. Due to this, individuals should join forces to fight racism in education.
The other reason why racism in education should be abolished is due to the fact that it affects socialization in schools. Students from different ethnic groups often find it hard to form relationships. Teachers are also faced with the same problem. In most cases, students from a specific race develop relationships with others from that specific race. This creates a circle of individuals from the same race, and this further accelerates racism in schools. When students find it hard to make friends with those from other races, sociability is affected, and this does not promote social growth in schools, and that is why the vice should be eradicated.
It follows that in the education sector, students have exhibited bad behaviors such as disruption and aggression due to racism. Racism has created hatred among students, and this has made them develop bad behaviors and use them in the prejudgment against the learners from different ethnic groups (Troyna & Williams, 2012). In schools, cases of fights have been on the rise, and are due to racism. Fights have always occurred between students who are from diverse backgrounds. Racism has also made some students use rude language to other students from different races. This has adverse effects on the characters of the affected learners, and as a result of this, people need to eradicate racism in schools.
Racism has also been the primary reason why dropout cases have been increasing in education. Students affected by racism tend to hate school and feel that they are happy when at home than in school. Such students feel at peace when they are at home because they are not teased or prejudiced. These students often end up hating school and also dropping out races (Troyna & Williams, 2012). The issue of students dropping out of school is also catalyzed by parents who have little confidence in the education system. Such parents become discouraged to advise their children to go back to school (Jubenville, 1994). Due to this aspect, racism should be eliminated in schools.
The last reason why racism in education should be eradicated is that it has lowered academic performance in schools. Teachers have also been victims of racism, and this has made them have little confidence in their teaching capability and have also lost teaching morale (Gillborn et al., 2016). The affected teachers end up losing morale of going to work and also feel unhappy and anxious. This has lowered their performance level especially in teaching, and this has had a negative effective on students’ performance and the entire schooling system.
The supporters of racism in education claim that it has advantages because as a result of racist experience, one can become a stronger person. They argue that a person gains distinct levels of flexibility as a way of fighting and countering racism. Nevertheless, this is a misleading argument because racism has been known to cause self-doubt and low self-esteem among the victims. Parents, teachers, or students cannot be stronger individuals due to racism. No one should be supporting racism due to the detrimental effects it has on education and the society.
In summary, due to the effect brought by racism, many people want to see the end to this brutality in schools because it is ripping the nation apart. The issue of racism in education should be addressed seriously because it has led to low academic achievement among the affected students. The health of these victims is also compromised. These effects have led poor educational sector and weak relations between schools and communities. The world would be a better place if every person casts his or her differences and look at the similarities which they share with the others. It is really sad to see racism dominating the education sector. A school is a place where all individuals are taught and educated but not a place where knowledge is passed to a particular race. Therefore, no student is supposed to come up with cases of racism because the main reason for going to school is to make their lives better. The society will never progress until racism in education is abolished. Thus, schools need to effect anti-racism measures to correct the situation and also prevent cases of racism from occurring in the future.
References
Cole, M., & Blair, M. (2006). Racism and education. Education, equality and human rights: Issues of gender, race, sexuality, disability, and social class , 70À88.
Constantine, M. G., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.). (2006). Addressing racism: Facilitating cultural competence in mental health and educational settings . John Wiley & Sons.
Gillborn, D., Rollock, N., Warmington, P., & Demack, S. (2016). Race, Racism and Education: inequality, resilience and reform in policy &.
Jubenville, J. M. (1994). The effects of racism in education upon inner-city high school students (Doctoral dissertation, University of St. Thomas; College of St. Catherine).
Troyna, B., & Williams, J. (2012). Racism, education and the state . Taylor & Francis.
