2: It's not all black and white.

Of all the countries for racism to be an issue, it seems rather ironic for it to be so present in America. With the native population being such a minority, it would seem automatic for all ethnic groups to treat each other as equals with equal rights to be here. Instead, we are no more immune to the dangers of racism than countries of nearly homogenous populations. There may be pockets of different concentrations or severities of judgement, but the continuation of lawsuits and hate crimes show that it is still a very widespread issue. Whether it be assuming a hispanic child is less intelligent because they have an accent, or a black student won't go to college because she's black, or even that your Korean friend down the street must be good at ping pong, racism largely boils down to presuming something about an individual simply based on their race.

The ultimate goal is for racism to be no more than a history lesson coinciding with events such as the holocaust or the Civil War. Such ignorance too soon, however, can be dangerous. It is a testament to the difficulty of thinking from someone else's point of view when a black student can sit in the same classroom as a white student who does not understand the idea of racism in 1960's Mississippi. It should be part of the purpose of the classroom to erase the option of racism from the mind's of the children, but it is still necessary to teach our students of the atrocities that have taken place. As it is said, if we do not learn from our mistakes, we are bound to repeat them. In teaching our students such lessons, it is also important to keep from allowing ourselves and our students to judge to oppressive race, else we commit a similar crime. Clearly, negative feelings toward Nazi Germany is not the same as instituting the holocaust, but they are rooted in the same soil. Along the same lines, the German boy in the third row of my classroom should not feel attacked any more than the Jewish boy sitting next to him. It is our duty to not only repair damage that has been done, but to prevent any future possibilities of racism.

"Color blindness", as discussed by Gollnick and Chinn, is how teachers should approach the expectations of the students in a classroom. There should be certain marks of achievement that we set for all of our students and it is the job of the teacher, possibly requiring the assistance of outside tutoring, to do what is necessary for each student to meet those achievements. However, color blindness with test scores and comprehension of material is not the same as color blindness with respect to culture. Ignoring cultural differences in the classroom means sending students into the world with no concept of other ethnic groups doing things in other ways. Such behavior does not eliminate racism--it simply prolongs it. Rather than a classroom that is "color blind", students should realize that they are all unique and interesting and have the opportunity at school to learn about one another. If we are to erase racism from our classrooms, ignoring it is not the solution--embracing it is. As teachers, it is our responsibility to show our classes that every student can achieve their goals and can accomplish the tasks of the classroom. To eliminate racism, we must attack the root-- the idea that one race is incapable of performing the same tasks as another.