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Mark;
The issues
of racism in the classroom are often difficult to advance. The risk
we run in addressing race issues in an educational setting is the
ability of some to promote "white guilt" and this is not
productive. I have seen children come up to me and apologize for
Wounded Knee, small pox laden blankets, taking sacred items, and
a wide variety of other matters that they were taught are part of
the "white" sins against natives.
One particular
young lady was confessing the guilt of her race telling me how sorry
she was for my sorrow and my losses, naming events all of which
occurred well over 100 years ago, as she cried I stopped her and
told her there was no need to cry, she kept saying I am so sorry.
The teacher did a good job of instilling guilt, which I find reprehensible,
especially considering since her mother is Swedish and her father's
family came to the U.S. from Hungary after WW II.
Teaching
children about atrocities, from any source, where there is the possibility
of creating an oppressed class, or directing a burden of guilt to
another is dangerous. The goal that might best serve society is
to allow children , as the future leaders of society, to understand
there are many cultures and pasts that make up the nation, and preference
of one over another is not acceptable, no guilt, just observational
reality.
When I speak
I tend to stay away from the word racist. No one, even the most
ardent neo-nazi rejects the classification as a racist. I spoke
to a class a few years ago and one of the other speakers was a member
of the Aryan Nation, before the discussion we talked for almost
an hour, he told me people of the "mud races" should go
back to where they belong, I told him I was where I belonged as
this was the land of my forefathers. His reply was the New World
was a barren wasteland of unutilized resources before Europeans
came and it was only by the grace of god and the existence of weak
willed people that any native members of the mud races exist today.
I commented that is a unique perspective, but coming from a racist
I expected nothing less, this "person" spent the next
30 minutes explaining how he was not a racist, and how making such
an assertion was defamatory, etc... Racism, and difficulties with
race relations are often in the eye of the beholder.
When it
concerns the use of race or ethnicity based mascots an interesting
exercise is to adopt a mascot based on the most visible minority
and treat it in the same manner in which native based mascots are
used (mocking culture, creating large noses, ears, goofy actions,
etc...). One school that did this replaced their native based mascot
with a depiction of the Pope and had mock ceremonies, etc...
Within a
matter of weeks the school dropped the native based mascot because
it became clear the Pope representation made Catholics uncomfortable
and the realization was developed as to how natives feel about the
same type of depiction. The idea was to bring everything home in
the lowest possible denominator and it works because it is simple.
Charles Yow
CYow@Yowlaw.com
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