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by Sara Sanky | |
| 1 | Race discrimination in America, no doubt, started in the minds of individuals who united and projected this discrimination into governmental institutions as an expression of their beliefs. This being true, the elimination of race discrimination in America must begin at its end, governmental institutions, and end at its beginning, the minds of individuals. Just as a gardener digs through the earth’s surface to destroy the root of, and thus eliminate, a harmful weed, the civil rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s broke through the surface of racism making it non-existent in America’s governmental institutions. Among other things, our public schools, transportation, restrooms and so on, are no longer segregated and every American citizen’s vote is considered equal. Racism, now, only exists in individual American minds. We have reached the root, now all we have to do is pull it out. This can be accomplished, not through laws, but only through education. |
| 2 | As Aristotle said, “the law is passionless” (158). The civil rights laws of America do not possess the power to make a man change his beliefs. At best, they will only make him hide them. What value do written laws hold to an individual who is taught, by example, that these laws are not right? An individual who rides integrated buses and attends an integrated school is just as likely to return home and slur racist remarks as he or she is to come home and preach for equality. Of course, these laws need to be in place so that more racism is not perpetuated, but they in no way end racism. |
| 3 | The problem with America’s approach to end racism is that we are too focused and dependent on laws as a solution. There is much talk about changing affirmative action, and such things, but if every individual in America truly believed in equality there would be no need for such talk. This is the goal; laws have already done their part, now it is time to educate. |
| 4 | Diversity programs are one way to educate the people of America about the truth and importance of equality. These programs can be interwoven into the public school system or can stand on their own to encourage diversity and its acceptance. Since the important differences in human beings do not rest in ethnicity, this fact will become obvious to people who are exposed to others of different ethnic backgrounds. Understanding should lead to acceptance if this acceptance is reasonable and sometimes does even when it is not. For instance, it is a common occurrence for people to accept other persons of their same ethnicity because they are like themselves in such an obvious way that they feel like they understand them. Even though this is not reasonable, as Rainier Spencer wrote in his essay “Race and Mixed Race,” “an understanding of human differences . . . does not include race as a meaningful category,” (303) it is often taken to be. Diversity programs will lead to other, more meaningful categories of understanding and acceptance and are especially needed in communities where the population lacks racial diversity. Unlike racially diverse communities, which are diversity programs in themselves, these communities need something to aid them in the understanding that race is not what makes a person and racial equality is a fact of life. |
| 5 | Another way to help educate about racial equality is through history education. It is true that history is a subject already embedded into the curriculum of the American public school system but not nearly enough. In my own personal experience, I did not learn in depth about the civil rights movement until my junior year of high school, when I was fully capable of understanding it at a much earlier age. Racism is something that, often times, starts when a child is young, when he or she is less skeptical and more naive than at any other point in his or her life. If I had formed racist beliefs as a young child I doubt that my education on equality when I was a teenager would have had any impact on these beliefs. Through history children can learn about individuals of all different ethnicities who have made it possible for them to live in a country where they are relatively free from suffering. In turn, they will come to respect them for this regardless of their race. Through history children can also acquire sympathy for those who endured horrible lives on the basis of their ethnicity, helping them to realize that this sort of treatment is wrong. |
| 6 | Diversity and history education will teach many of our nation’s young that regardless of race all human beings are equal, but the problem still exists that children learn much by example. As long as they are returning home to racist parents, whom they respect, beliefs of racial inequality will not cease. Along with equality education for our young, we need equality education for our old. One way to do this would be to offer guardians of every American public school-going child parenting classes throughout their child’s public education. The curriculum of these classes would not be limited to but would include information on why racial discrimination is wrong, how it has and negatively affects the people of our nation and ways in which they can encourage their children to disregard racist beliefs as truth. This program and its advertisement could be easily funded by our government and would be offered on various days and at various times for parent’s convenience. If guardians were interested but could not make it to the classes, the classes would also be offered on the Internet, and through the mail as well. |
| 7 | Educating individuals on racial equality is the next step in the fight against racism. In order to do this, diversity and history programs must be set in place for all individuals of all ages. Just as it is hard for a gardener to destroy the roots of every weed the first time around, it will definitely take time for these programs to take effect and help the majority of American minds to become colorblind. But slowly and surely it will happen, and someday Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of a nation where people “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (218) will be regarded by the American people, not as a dream, but as truth. |
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Nominated by George R. Martin, Jr., Writing Instructor
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