Ethnic Studies

Taking an ethnic studies class, opens your mind to different views on class, race, ethnicity, and this society in which we love. These beliefs and thoughts are inherited, or influenced by parents. That raises the question "How do we prepare, rather than repair, children to handle issues about race, class, and ethnicity?" For one, race is a social construct that only benefits the dominate, majority group. It is a problem because we have made it a problem. There is so much emphasis on "what we look like." When people ask me my race, I usually say human. For children, it is different. When they are brought up on the empty phrase "everyone is equal," and the failed "underneath our skin, we are all the same," problems will arise. Everyone is equal means nothing anymore. It is because of color blind racism. Treating everyone as "equal" is used to maintain an unequal status quo. As far as everything "underneath our skin" goes, it implies that there is a problem in the first place. It implies that there is something wrong with what is on the outside. Instead of sugar coating the topic of race, give children age appropriate facts. For class, teaching to envy those who have more, and pity those who have less is only going to backfire and does not benifit children. We should teach them to understand that there are people who have more than others and people who have less and that does not say anything about their character. Ethnicity depends on who raised someone. Whether you are Polish-American or Chinese-American should not matter, but it does. Teaching children to embrace these cultures will lead to creativity and new ideas. Culture is not something people should fear. Although we have come far, we have a long way to go.