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ESE 440
Dillon Harden

Culminating Reflection

Where have you been?

I have been blind to many different forms of racism in the world today. I always thought
every person had the same opportunity for success. When I was growing up, little thought went
into the treatment of the other races. I graduated from a school where the majority of the
population was Hispanic. This led me to believe I had fewer chances at success than my Hispanic
peers. Little did I know they had an even worse school experience than me. Graduating high
school was one of the first times I realized that I may have an advantage in obtaining an
education compared to other races. While the majority of my high school was Hispanic, most of
the teachers were white. Since most of my teacher were white I did not study any material about
other races. Unless it was about someone of the other races causing trouble. This opened me to
use backdoor racism on a daily basis simply because I knew little about the other races. I always
felt like I was not a racist and when someone accused me of saying or doing something racist I
would get very angry. I would argue that I have Hispanic friends, and treat other races with
respect, at least out in the open anyway. I would never be openly racist, but I had a serious case
of backdoor racism. I did not see backdoor racism as a problem for me back then, but now I
realize that it held me back from being an ally to my Hispanic friends in high school. Instead of
helping the minority race I chose to ignore all signs of racism and go on with my life. This issue

of ignoring other races is a huge problem in the U.S.A, and it will continue to go on unless we
stand up and fight this issue together.
Where are you now?

I feel that I have been shown the cruel reality we live in today. This cruel reality is
centered around the treatment of the minority. Since I am a part of the white majority, I have an
advantage in today's society. Not only do I have an advantage in obtaining a better education, but
I also have an advantage at obtaining a more successful life. One of the main reasons why I have
this advantage is because of the stereotypes placed on the minority. A frequently used stereotype
is calling an African American a thug just because of their skin color. Stereotypes dehumanize
people of color and sometimes lead people of color to follow along with the stereotype. After
being fed lies over and over again people of color will either give up fighting against the
stereotypes, or join them. Now that I understand the amount of pressure these stereotypes put on
a person of color, I refuse to use them. I have also came to the realization of the little to no
representation of the minority in school curriculum. This is a big reason why a huge percentage
of the minority ends up with no job, or in prison. Since there is very little representation of the
minority in school, this will lead many students to believe they have no history, or importance.
This is completely false because the minority is largely responsible for building, and keeping the
country moving along. In high school I do not remember seeing any type of cultural importance
for the minority. Having zero representation in an environment that you spend more than half of
the year at can make some of the younger individuals in the minority feel unwanted or less of a
person than their white peers. This will lead many students in the minority to drop out of school
which never helps them in the end. Dropping out of school will just make their situation worse

because they will have no education, and therefore it will make it nearly impossible to get a job.
If they cannot get a job and have a family to provide for they will usually end up doing
something illegal or immoral just to make sure that their family survives. Since dropping out of
school never leads down a good path, we must involve these minority groups in our everyday
education to make sure they are given an opportunity to succeed. Another issue that the minority
faces is bullying. While the white majority experiences bullying, we will never understand just
how much bullying the minority receives. In schools around the world the minority has to deal
with some type of mistreatment in their lives. These types of mistreatment can be as simple as
not receiving any help on assignments simply because of their skin color. There is another
stereotype that all Asians are good at math and excel in school because they believe in making
their parents proud. While they do believe in making their parents proud, they are not all math
geniuses. So a teacher who has been taught these stereotypes in their life and hold them true will
give little help if any to Asian's in class. There have been many experiments tested on this
stereotype and it is simply false. No one race has an advantage in a specific subject. So this
would bring me to have teachers forget about stereotypes and teach the class on the basis that
everyone needs additional information or help with a subject. Another minority that schools fail
to represent in the curriculum is the gay minority. There are tons of very important gay people in
history that helped make this great country possible. Gay history is not the only subject where
gays could be represented. Gay literature is as well written as the literature of people who are
straight, yet it is not represented in school's today because some may find being gay offensive.
Many religions look down on gay people as a bad thing, and this is a major factor of why gays
are not shown in school curriculum. It has come to my realization that if something is not
relevant to the majority's culture then it is considered irrelevant. Until we place ourselves in the

shoes of the oppressed we will never understand how to fix the issue. Representation of the
minority in our school systems is long overdue. When the minority gains their equal opportunity
at success then we will see a huge shift in our nations education.
Where might you go from here?
I see myself going down the path of becoming an ally to the minority. I feel like I am a
person of the world. What I mean from this statement is I would go out of my way to help any
person who needs it. It does not matter what their race or sexual orientation is, I believe that we
are all here on this planet to make a difference. Until we realize that race is a very big issue that
needs to be addressed, I'm afraid that this country will always look past race and assume there is
no problem with it in today's society. I know that as a single person I will not be able to make a
huge difference in the treatment of the minority, but it is a start on the right path. I see myself
going on to help represent the minority in education. I believe that when I become a teacher I
will be able to make students of all races, and sexual orientation feel welcomed in our school
system. I may not be able to represent the minority as much as they wish to be represented, but I
will do my best to make sure everyone has their moment. Now that I have been through a
multicultural education class, I feel like I am ready to go out in the world and ally myself with
those people involved in the minority. I hope that I can educate some people who may have been
misinformed about certain races, or sexual orientations. Maybe one day I will be able to share
my idea's with the community so that I can make a bigger impact on the issue of race in the
country, but until that day I will continue to study the poor treatment of the minority and
different ways that I can help make a difference.