Week 3: Race in Schools: The Structural Divide

Masahero Masuda
Blog Post#4

   As we have discussed in our PD sessions this week, racism is still strongly prevalent in our current society and sadly there have been, and will continue to be, various unjust discrimination against the minority groups, particularly the African Americans. The most simple solution to this issue is to eliminate all forms of racism and racist mindset in the society. However, as simple as it might sound, it is nearly impossible to accomplish such feat as racism or prejudices are passed down from generation to generation and are shaped by the environment that the people are raised in. Moreover, as humans, we have the tendency to dislike those who are "different" from us. This difference include appearance, socioeconomic status, race, and/or gender.
  While it might be impossible to completely eliminate racism, it is certainly possible to decrease such mindsets by educating the children from a young age to be more understanding of different cultures. If we can lessen racist mindsets from the children, those children will eventually grow up to pass on their values and ideas to the next generation. The most effective way to educate the children in such manner is to increase diversity in the classroom. By having the children interact and befriend those of different races, they will grow to become more understanding and will consequently have less prejudice against them.