Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education
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Red, Yellow, Black, and White
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Author:  April Wilkinson [ Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Red, Yellow, Black, and White

Since our class time that we discussed the black vs. white issue in the recent presidential election, I've been thinking about one thing a lot:

Do you think our country will ever get past the black vs. white vs. every other color issue? Do you think the issue of race will ever be terminated? Why or why not?

Author:  EricaHayes [ Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:01 pm ]
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I don't know if this country can ever get past race, not fully anyway. There will always be close minded people, I am not sure that this country will fully get over race. I think it is sad but true.

Author:  NikkiTester [ Tue Nov 18, 2008 6:33 am ]
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I believe that if this country ever has any hope of getting past the race issue, change will have to come from all sides.

Author:  Alison Scott [ Tue Nov 18, 2008 11:25 am ]
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I agree with Nikki. A lot of change is necessary if that is ever going to happen but honestly I doubt it will. There are biases, stereotypes, and closed-minded people from all directions and on all sides. We do seem to learn somewhat from the past as a general trend, but as a whole our prejudices and personal issues will probably never fully disappear. Change is hard to come by as a whole, which is what would be necessary to completely get over the race divide.

Author:  Emily White [ Wed Nov 19, 2008 1:35 am ]
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Before this election I was a lot more pessimistic about this issue. Obama's victory has brought me hope that it may be possible that one day race won't be an issue. The only way that this will happen though is if we all take an active role to promote acceptance of one another to eliminate prejudice and racism. Our role as teachers will give us a lot of power to help instill this value of equality and acceptance of one another in our students. Education will play a huge role.

Author:  Kari Tatum [ Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:51 pm ]
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I think that pointing out race only makes it more apparent. I do, however, think that culture should be celebrated. If we have to continuously question whether we are being fair to every student and making sure they all feel comfortable JUST BECAUSE they are African American, Asian America, Hispanic American, the list goes on and on, then we are not doing our jobs. That is not fair to them. If they receive special treatment because of their race, will they not begin to feel that they are incapable of what the other students are doing? Will they not begin to think that since the teacher is spending so much more time on them, there has to be something wrong with them? We are there to make EVERY student feel comfortable. Period, the end. It does not matter who they are, where they are from, or what they look like. They are our students and they deserve equal treatment.
I love diversity and sometimes resent that I did not grow up with much of it. It is interesting and exciting to me to see how different we all are as part of the human race. However, I feel that celebrating diversity and culture is one thing and constantly pointing out that you have a black or Hispanic, or Asian student in your class just for the sake of it is detrimental to everyone. They are all students and they are ONE class!! We should be promoting unity, not division. That is what will bring us together.

Author:  Emily Mackie [ Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:23 pm ]
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I agree with both Emily and Kari. People have physical differences and those things will always be true. What will not always be true is the way that is acceptable to treat other people because of these differences. This is something that has been changing for a long time in this country and I don't think it is an impossible goal that be become more civil, tolerant, and welcoming to people who are different from them. As teachers and citizens it is important to encourage students/other people to be proud of what makes them unique and to give them equal opportunities.

Emily pointed out that education plays a huge role in creating an accepting society. There is a huge correlation between ignorance and prejudices/racism. The more people are educated(on any side of the race issue) the less hostile they seem to be with those who are "different" from them. This sounds silly, but when we watched that music video yesterday(don't call me names, etc), I thought 'how different would the world be if we all really lived by the golden rule?' It's simple and yet societies make it complicated.

I also think Obama's winning the election says something remarkable about our country. I don't think his winning was a black/white issue because if it were, the black vote would not be enough to win it. (I'm not saying that race doesn't contribute to some people's thinking, but that didn't win the election) But in a country where schools and social scenes were tumultuous 40 years ago because of race, look at far we've come and how fast. It won't happen quickly but there is hope.

Having the mindset that race will always be an issue(even if you don't consider yourself racist) makes it impossible for race to disappear from being a problem. Having this mindset surrenders to the idea that negative relationships because of race will always exist and then people tend not to promote the contrary. Being active in making the change is what will make it happen, not accepting that it will never happen.

Author:  Jerry Nicole Whitener [ Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:29 pm ]
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I dont think that we will ever get past race. If we do, we will find some other way to put a certain person on the bottom in my opinion. We really do need to spend time working with children to teach them not to hate. The discussion that we had the other day was good. Race is not as much of an issuse as it was, but in the school system children always find something to pick on someone else, or to kick them out of the group, and it's not right, its just the way it seems to be. We need to teach children to be more accepting, and to tolerate the differences that we all have.

Author:  Brittany Norman [ Sat Nov 29, 2008 1:34 pm ]
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I don't think that everyone in this country will completely get over the race issue. I agree with what a few people have already said in that there will always be biases, whether they are against race or something else. I don't know that the whole point is to get past the race issue or just get past the "hate" part of it.

Author:  Kollin Kalk [ Thu Dec 11, 2008 9:53 pm ]
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Most of you have said that it would be impossible to get past the race problem. My question is then, what is inherent in human beings that make this impossible?

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