Race and Stereotypes

Race and Stereotypes

The terms race, ethnicity and culture are extremely hard to nail down with one definition, they are broad terms that people define differently. The similarities with these terms are that they are thoughts that categorize people; these terms either group or divide people. These terms can lead to racism which can lead to heated discussions and can even lead to wars and destruction. Racism and stereotypes exist, no matter how unfortunate it is hate and racism are alive in America. As a pre-service teacher I struggle with the idea that children will be coming into my classroom with ideas of hate towards their other classmates or even me because of what they hear at home. Students are going to judge others on how they look or where they come from because it is what they have grown up with at home. It is awful but it is the truth. One of my many worries is knowing how to deal with this prejudice and discrimination in my classroom. Racism will not be tolerated in my classroom but there is no way that I am going to hear every single conversation between my students or see every eye roll or mean face that these students may encounter. Dealing with these issues will be difficult but it is essential that we deal with it head on instead of sweeping it under the rug and letting it cultivate into something much bigger. In ELL classrooms today there are so many different races represented and I want to teach my students that this is an amazing thing; these students can teach each other so much about culture and ways of life if they open their eyes to it.

As poisonous as they are cultural and racial stereotypes are out there and even young students are well aware of them. The best thing we can do as leaders in the classroom is educating ourselves and not letting these stereotypes effect our thinking. In Kuma’s article the idea that TESOL professionals stereotype based on social identity. “if our students fail to interact in class the way we expect them to, or if they fail to show that they engage their minds the way we want them to, we readily explain their behavior in terms of culture and cultural stereotypes”(Kuma 717). As educators we have a responsibility and we must be critically aware and understanding.