Bias and Social Psychology in Education and Life... where is the balance?

I was recently asked a question by a collegue of mine that got me thinking quite deeply about the issue of "racism," and what it really means in today's society. With so much confusion surrounding terms like "equal opportunity employer," or 'affirmative action" and a growing idea of being able to use race as an excuse to get away with just about anything (note: this statement is not representive of an entire group of people, but individuals who happen to identify with one group or another that are invoking ideas of special entitlements due to their race), I think it's important to address that each of us are responsible for our own success in life. It is also crucial that we understand that certain groups of people, especially racial and ethnic minorities, are systematically held back from "pulling theselves up by the bootstraps" for lack of a better term by systems of racism and classim. The challenge is how we overcome these barries to ensure everyone equal footing in life.

The question, including a brief story putting the question into context was as follows:

"I agree with you, Nicole that 'Blackness' isn't just skin color but, rather, ideology and oppression. The negative thing about being black in the US isn't the skin color but the oppression. Sadly, there are some people (of all skin colors) who don't really want to take responsibility and, when things don't go their way, they blame it on their skin color/gender/age/disability and so on. I was head of a university's Special Ed department a few years ago and after I denied entry to one student, he came to my office and started shouting at me for being racist. He said that I'd have let him in if he'd been white. I told him I'd lived (very happily) in Africa for a few years and his response was that I was probably only there to learn how much I hated blacks!! He had a very hard time accepting that he was denied entry because his GPA was too low.

One of the problems is that prejudice exist and there are many instances when people from different cultural groups ARE discriminated against. How do we teach students to take responsibility for their own success and balance that with the fact that, sometimes, people stand in the way of them succeeding because of prejudice and not ability?"

My answer:

To answer the question, well, the truth is, there is no easy answer. Unfortunately, most of that social conditioning comes from outside of school. When a child is surrounded by that kind of thinking constantly-- one of entitlement and a misunderstanding of racism-- in their neighborhoods, with family, and with friends, it is so hard to reverse. I've actually done a lot of thinking about this, because I may encounter it in my classroom someday with I met up with this kind of thinking from the young African American men I helped mentor from Malcolm X academy in Detroit, Michigan. We mentors tried to work alongside the school and its tradition of teaching racial consciousness and responsibility for one's own success, but I can tell you, it was not easy to get through to some of the young men.  It was even harder for me, a white female born of privilege to have the kids see that I was there for the right reasons. I wasn’t there to “save them.” I was there to share what privilege I had, i.e. knowledge and education to empower them to make a life of substance for themselves.

What I found was most useful actually, was teaching the history of social movements, and the history of struggle African Americans faced. Many of the kids were ignorant of that history, and when it was taught to them, I could see their thought patterns switch. They began to realize how much so many people scarified to help them get the rights they have today. They also saw the theory behind what these revolutionaries were doing-- they did not want entitlement or special treatment, they wanted the respect that was due to them as human beings. They were demanding that their basic needs be met: that of food, water, shelter, education, and health care, etc. The students began to respect that more and more, and helped them build tolerance and respect for all people, because essentially we are all striving for the same things. Our lessons also focused on the fact that certain groups in society have unearned privileges, especially those who are considered “Caucasian” or “White.” There are constructive ways to deal and interact with people who are privileged in those ways that do not have to include disrespect or intolerance, which in reality just exacerbates the vicious cycle of racism and reverse racism between everyone. Those ways are based in the theory of properly understanding the nexus between racism and capitalism, as well as helping students understand that not everyone is “out to get them.” I am a strong believer that if one knows where they have been (and in this case, ‘they’ can mean the predecessors of the racial, ethnic, etc. group that the individual identifies with), one will have a better sense of where one is going and where one can go.

The problem… this kind of critical thinking isn’t taught in most schools, whether they be public or private. How do we get more of that put into the curriculum, and how do we train more teachers to help them understand the value of adding such conversations to the classroom? Also, how do we incorporate this kind of learning to fit the needs of all students who fit under the “multicultural” category?