RACISM IN THE

CLASSROOM
Intentional
Ignorance ignorance is trying to hide
Racism Affects housing, medical benefits, loans, education, public funding,
criminal justice
Starts with fear and perpetuated controlling distribution of power. \Can be perceived as favoritism

Golden rule of racism

We can help to eliminate it by teaching kids tolerance

"It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as

an educated person."
It relies mostly in educators to decide the future of equality

OUR JOB AS EDUCATORS

 George Dei suggests that information should
present truths about the contributions of African
societies to world civilization. (Dei, p.7) This would
represent Africans in a more positive light as
opposed to consistently dwelling on their
problems and failures, which may perpetuate
and strengthen existing biases. Texts should also
promote equity of people with mental and
physical handicaps, the gifted, the elderly and
between the genders.

ELIMINATING RACISM FROM THE

CLASSROOM
BLUE
EYED/GREEN
EYED
EXPERIMENT
 Take a critical look at the materials which the students use to
learn. Despite the recent trend of multicultural literature, many
school texts remain monocultural in their presentation of
knowledge. This may send serious messages about the inferiority
of some and the superiority of others
Teachers should select texts that represent non-mainstream
persons positively

ELIMINATING RACISM FROM THE

CLASSROOM
 Portraying men and women in roles traditionally held by the
opposite sex. Students could learn about female doctors,
lawyers, and mechanics and concurrently about male
secretaries, nurses, and flight attendants.
Group work leads to a better understanding of race, sex, age or
religion.

ELIMINATING RACISM FROM THE

CLASSROOM
 One such popular practice was to expose children to racism and
how the sting of discrimination felt by using the blue eye/green
eye experiment, which favored students and gave them
preferential treatment based on their eye color. Multicultural
days exploring different cultures, religions, and the history of
different races may also occur.
Some schools practice a zero-tolerance policy to discourage the
practice of racism and other undesirable behaviors, which may
result in the removal of the offending student from that particular
school

ELIMINATING RACISM FROM THE

CLASSROOM
 Children must learn to accept the fact that racism will exist
outside of schools
For if a student cannot relate to racism as it affects himself, then
he may not understand it completely and choose not to actively
participate in its elimination
Students must be taught to accept racists, bigots, sexists, and
hate-mongers despite not agreeing with their philosophy or
practice, because if they don't accept these people, then they
themselves are practicing the prejudice against which they so
actively lobby

ELIMINATING RACISM FROM THE

CLASSROOM
FIVE-STEP ACTION PLAN

Stage 1: Stay calm

Stage 2: Get ready for action

The behavior needs to be addressed. Decide when is the most
appropriate time to intervene. In the case of an offensive remark
to you or another learner, you need to intervene immediately.
FIVE-STEP ACTION PLAN
Stage 3: Confront the behavior
. Make it explicit to the learner that the behavior has
been noted and must stop immediately. However, in
doing this, you need to remember the need for
equity. Treat the learner who has made the remark
with the same level of respect as the others. You
need to model appropriate behavior.
Stage 4: Elicit examples of racism
You need specific examples and you need to elicit
these from the offender. Avoid telling them, try to
get the learner to reflect and articulate themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAE3UqxIhfE
FIVE-STEP ACTION PLAN
Stage 5: Consequences.
Ask how such comments/behaviors make the
other learner feel, i.e. establish the impact of
racism on others. Summarize by referring to the
rights of all class members to be treated with
the same levels of respect by both the teacher
and other learners.