I just read an article from a
British newspaper talking about how racism talks can cause students to be more
intolerant. There was a recent study done in the Netherlands that shows that
anti-racism lessons can cause animosity to other cultures and therefore
increase over intolerance.
The study
does show that children who grow up in neighborhoods of mixed races are more
likely to be tolerant and free of hostility. But, when more attention during
class time is focused on a multicultural society, it can actually create
animosity rather than liberating these hatred views. This is a clear “unexpected
negative effect.” It shows that sometimes a certain animosity can be created
when talking about discrimination among minority groups. Many of the students
have never thought or done any racist actions, so this scholar asks why would
we plant the racist thoughts in their head?
This
article brings up an interesting debate. But it seems like to me that by not
talking about racial issues that we are in essence, avoiding them. That would
mean that we are cowards because we are too scared to bring up racial issues.
They’re here; we all know about discrimination and racial issues. There is no
point in avoiding them in education. I think what needs to happen is that we
need to change HOW we are talking about the racial issues and how we are
teaching them to children. We do not want young children and teenagers to have
any animosity towards another race. It is necessary to talk about racial issues
in our present-day society AND our history. We should talk about the racial
issues and instill a theory of multiculturalism within the children without
festering up new ideas about hatred. We should talk about the issues but we
shouldn’t “rub the children’s noses” in them. When teaching, we can’t be
accusing the students of racism when they have never thought or done this. We
must draw a clear line between our history and our current times, without
totally separating the two. I know that sounds a bit crazy and I’m kind of
contradicting myself. I believe we must talk about the history (the past racial
issues) like they are in the past, but also realize that we can learn from the
past. There are clearly still many racial issues in our society today and we
can learn from history as how to fix this.
What are your thoughts on this article and study? Do you
believe that talking about racial issues can cause animosity?