Do I Have the Full Picture?

  As educators, it is our duty to teach an unbiased curriculum that gives students the full picture. It is also our duty to make sure we make it known to our students what stance we take on issues that directly affect them. However, I do not promote using political terms such as democrat and republican. It is possible to let our students know how we feel about issues concerning race without using this terminology. An example, of a stance that I will take with my students, is that dysconscious racism is the direct root of economic inequality in the United States. It is important to teach our students about what this term means and what its results included. The video “We Must Talk About Race to Fix Economic Inequality”, defines dysconscious racism as “habits, perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs that justify racial inequality, the social and economic advantages of being white that does not allow alternate visions of society”. The main example the video gives of this is dog whistling. Dog whistling is a way to talk about people of color in a demeaning way that still allows the people speaking to have deniability about who they are directing their comments. An example of this would be freeloaders. It is important that we as educators learn how to spot this kind of derogatory language so that we can prohibit it in our classroom, and properly explain to our students why it will not be tolerated. 

The TikTok posted by Victoria really hit home with me because I distinctly remember learning about Ruby Bridges in school. However, I was taught that Ruby was welcomed into her new school with open arms with little to no resistance. I did not learn that fifty other children of color applied to this same school, and were rejected. In fact, I did not even learn that they had to apply at all. The point I am trying to make here is that, as educators, it is our job to do our own research and learning because it is almost a certainty that we have been fed biased information and mistaken them for facts of history. If we fail to educate ourselves then we just continue this vicious cycle.

    I think many people are so willing to leave this in the past because they think it is ancient history. This is a picture of Ruby Bridgers now; she is 68 years old.