my early memories of my racial identity
Learning Resources
This page contains the Learning Resources for this week. Be sure to scroll down the page to see all of the assigned resources for this week. To view this week’s media resources, please use the streaming media player below.
Required Resources
Course Text: Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World
Chapter 4, “The Context of Race” (pp. 69–84, up to “How to Learn What Children Know, Think, and Feel about Race”)
Chapter 5, “The Economic Context: Social Class and Consumerism” (pp. 87–100, up to “How to Learn What Children Know, Think, and Feel about Social Class and Consumerism”)
Web Article: Hidden Bias: A Primer About Stereotypes and Prejudices
http://www.tolerance.org/activity/test-yourself-hidden-bias
Note: This article connects you with the “Race Test” and the “Gender Test” you took last week. This week, click on and read about the four topics listed on the left-hand side of the page:
About Stereotypes and Prejudices
About Hidden Bias
The Effects of Prejudice and Stereotypes
What You Can Do About Unconscious Stereotypes and Prejudices
Media
Video: Laureate Education (Producer). (2004). Microaggressions [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 20 minutes.
Dr. Derald Wing Sue discusses the “everyday indignities” endured by marginalized groups as a result
Optional Resources
Web Article: What if All the Children Are White? Historical and Research Background
http://journal.naeyc.org/btj/200511/DermanSparksBTJ1105.pdf
Article: With New Eyes: Ideas for More Effective Teaching in a Multicultural Environment (PDF)
Web Site:Understanding Prejudice
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/
Application: Reflective Journal
“Despite the ambiguities and contradictions inherent in the concept of race, all of us are treated differently according to our race. As a result, we all consciously or not, develop racial identities and attitudes” (Ramsey, 2004, p. 72).
Ramsey states, “Socioeconomic status is ‘an encompassing structure•it relates to virtually every aspect of human psychological development and across a considerable period of time'” (as cited in Gottfried, Gottfried, Bathurst, Guerin, & Parramore, 2003, p. 204)
There is no doubt that race and socioeconomic status are complicated and far-reaching forces in all of our lives, including the lives of young children. For this Application Assignment, you will have an opportunity to consider your own relationship with each of these important areas of diversity by continuing to write in your Reflective Journal.
Part 1:
For the first portion of your journal entry this week, read over the responses you wrote in Week 1 to the question: Who Am I? Then add at least three additional responses to this question in relation to your knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about race, racial groups, and/or socioeconomic class.
Part 2:
For the second portion of your journal entry, review the questions below. Select three or more to write about.
What are my early memories of my racial identity? How has it changed?
How do I feel about my racial group? Am I proud? Ambivalent? Do I sometimes wish (or have wished) that I belonged to another group?
How do I feel about people from other racial groups? What assumptions to I have? Do I have close friends and neighbors in other racial groups, or is my social network racially homogeneous? Would I like to have close friends of racial groups other than my own? Why or why not? What assumptions about racial groups do I have?
What are my assumptions about why some people are affluent and others are poor? Do I think it is fair? Inevitable?
What do I assume about the race, gender, education, and character of people in different jobs? What images come to mind when I hear that someone is a sanitation worker? A doctor? An assembly-line worker? An executive? A chambermaid? A manager?
Who or what do I blame for disparities in wealth and opportunity? Poor people? Wealthy people? The system? What do I think needs to be changed? Do I want to be a part of that change? If so, in what ways?
Assignment length: 2–3 pages
