As someone who has had the valuable and fortunate opportunity to have grown up in a racially diverse community of friends, I have witnessed first-hand the racial discrimination and biases that come with being an adopted child here in America. This has occurred in many instances when children gather in groups pertaining to specific environments such as teams, classrooms, or general hangouts amongst friends. Now more than ever, I believe this topic has not been discussed as much as it has should be in American culture. In recent news, we have heard about the shooting at a local spa in Atlanta, GA. Appalling enough, this shooting has had many believe the motive was anti-Asian bias. This hatred towards many other races has evidently been a critical issue in our country for quite some time. This shows we have not done enough to combat the problem as much as we should. We must address this starting with educating our youth on racism and find ways to avoid biases in effort for racial inclusion.
As a child, I can remember my Asian friends being made fun of because they were not “good” in geometry and engineering compared to the racist stereotypes. Moreover, I can remember a specific instance when a fellow teammate made a comment towards my friend suggesting he was not to the athletic level compared to him because he was not American. This most certainly had an effect on how my diverse friends felt about their intelligence or athletic ability thinking they weren’t up to the standard that was held by their peers.
Many other minority children have faced the same challenges that my friends have undergone growing up. This, I believe, goes hand-in-hand in relation to the “One” to the “Other” concept. Whether one is discussing a child or an adult, this is clearly been seen as leaving minority groups (Other) left out of the whole because they are not racially the same as Caucasian Americans (One). Furthermore, I believe this poses the question of when the development of racism and the practice of thinking of minorities as subgroups become someone’s thought towards their reality. From a child’s perspective, I would like to share a heartbreaking video that will provide a real-life example of the “One” and “Other” concept being practiced as a black family moves into a predominantly white neighborhood:
Furthering this conversation, studies have been shown that even babies have biases. This is significantly caused by their environment in which they grow up. (Gjersoe).
My prayer is that someday our children will be the ones to entirely expel the revolting notion of discrimination. This is in hopes that when they meet anyone who is a minority, it won’t be “Other”, but rather so, “Us”.
Works Cited
“Black Family Tried to Move to All-White Neighborhood in Rosedale, Queens (1976) – HARD TO WATCH.” YouTube, 24 June 2019, youtu.be/4hfJ2WV6M0M.
Nathalia Gjersoe Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology. “How Young Children Can Develop Racial Biases – and What That Means.” The Conversation, 28 June 2019, theconversation.com/how-young-children-can-develop-racial-biases-and-what-that-means-93150.