It isn’t till
we are a little older that we identify the stressors in our own lives from
childhood. Until we realize what is
actually going on in our lives as children I think it is just survival. As resilient as children are many of the
stressors they are exposed to as children have a lasting affect on who they
become as adults. At least that was the
case for me. Racism is a kind of abuse
that can be both mental and physical.
According to Cynthia Garcia Coll
and Laura A. Szalacha in the
article The Multiple Contexts of Middle
Childhood, racism, is a pervasive and systemic reality in modern American
society, inextricably linked to processes of social, political, and economic
domination and marginalization (2004).
It can be an innocent misunderstanding or it can be very directed and
cruel. Whatever the case I believe that
racism is taught, learned, or not corrected till it becomes belief. Often times racism is passed on through
cultures and subcultures and I am amazed that it continues to thrive despite all
the historical outcomes we have seen on its behalf.
Many years ago
I was tending to my baby and
pushing the grocery cart at a
local grocery store. As we scooted into
the checkout line we were passed by another mom with daughter in a shopping
cart, a quite common event in a grocery store.
As they strolled by her daughter with little blond curls bouncing up and
down and sheer excitement on her face let out, “MOM, look it’s a chocolate
baby.” Her mother quite embarrassed
strolled away as quickly as possible.
This is an example of the innocence of children. The little girl had obviously not been
exposed much if at all to other races different from her own. However, I would have loved to hear the
continuing conversation and explanation between mother and daughter from that
point on. Children will naturally grow
up to be non-racist adults when they live in a non racist society, until then,
adults must guide children's anti- racist development (Derman-Sparks, Higa, and
Sparks).
In
the country of South Africa, children face many of the stressors children face
in most parts of the world, Poverty and racism still remaining at the top of the
list despite the end of Apartheid. The
problem remains in majority populations of “Whites” where most Africans of color
simply do not go out of habit or cannot afford to go or live due to
socioeconomic status. According to a the
South African Ambassador to Vienna, most Africans do not consider color as a
definition of race, but rather whether or not you accept and participate in the
culture . If you speak the
language you are African. In the last
ten years, many new laws and programs have been initiated in order to protect
young children in South Africa regardless of skin tone. However, there is no recent evidence or
studies I could find that South African children are any less affected by the
countries racial problems and socioeconomic division of classes even with the
end of Apartheid.
References
Coll, C. and
Szalacha, L. (2004). The multiple contexts of middle childhood. Children of
Immigrant Families, 14(2)
Derman-Sparks,
L., Higa, C., and Sparks, B. (n.d.). Children, race, and racism: How race
awareness develops . Retrieved from http://www.teachingforchange.org/files/027-a.pdf
on September 30
