Learning About Racism

My Experience:

The only time I can recall actually learning about race and racism was during college in my social work classes. When I first was introduced to talking about it with people of other races, I noticed that everyone had different views on what they thought about racism. I think this is because people of different races often have different experiences when it comes to racism. When everyone would share their experiences with the class, I was surprised with some of the things that people have experienced throughout their lives. I personally haven't experienced a time where I was a victim of racism, but I have definitely witnessed it with other people. 

I remember in my social work class, there was this one person who constantly said that racism didn't exist. Clearly this person wasn't educated enough on racism and what it looks like. This makes me think about something that Tatum said in her article "Talking about Race, Learning about Racism". Tatum says "Those Whites whose lives are structured so as to limit their interaction with people of color, as well as their awareness of racial issues, may remain at this stage indefinitely". It seemed like this person in my class didn't want to learn about racism at all to the point where they wouldn't participate in conversations and if they did, they often said something that was racist. My professor tried to make this student understand that racism is a real issue and that it isn't just going to go away unless we do something about it. However, the student still didn't seem to care about the topic at all. I also struggled with sharing my opinion because I am a white women and I felt like my opinion didn't matter as much as someone who is of a different race simply because they have had different experiences with racism than me. This was something that I struggled with but ultimately, my professor made sure everyone felt comfortable and didn't make anyone speak if they didn't want to because it's a hard topic to talk about. Overall, racism needs to be talked about and learned in schools to create awareness about this issue and to hopefully put an end to it for future generations.

Marcus: On Being Good

The author of this story is telling her experience about how she was put into the classroom to observe Marcus and to create a plan for the school and his mom. She says that she has grown to love Marcus while being in the classroom with him. She really sees Marcus for his strengths and not his weaknesses and even though he is complicated, she really tries to see past that and see him for the person that he is underneath the need for negative attention.

She sees Marcus as having:

• extraordinary goodness
• charisma
• empathy
• smarts
• fierce love
• loyalty

The teacher Emily, sees Marcus differently than the women that is just observing him. Emily tends to get a little frustrated with Marcus and she has the right to do that because she has to think about the whole class and whether they are learning or being distracted by Marcus.

Emily says that Marcus knows how to push her buttons and describes his behavior as being "in your face". She sees Marcus as having potential but he acts out and can't sit and just listen. He has to be heard when he wants to be heard.

Emily sees Marcus as:

• Energetic
• Assertive
  
• Smart

Marcus' mom sees Marcus in a different way then the women observing him and his teacher Emily because she sees him at home; where he is in a space where there isn't as much structure as there is in the classroom. This allows Marcus to be more of himself without the consequences of missing out or being a distraction to other students at school. She clearly loves her son but she knows that he has these issues and she needs the school's help to get a plan for her son to be better. In the end, she decided to put him on medication because she couldn't deal with getting phone calls everyday. I definitely think she was right to take him to therapy and that seemed to be helping him. But I think that she might see Marcus as a problem or a handful that she doesn't want to deal with. 

Here is a link to the article if you wanted to read it for yourself:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18qROarAn9kZ6g-xl0JCMEf7W38hmNBFY/view?usp=sharing

 Stereotypes for our Youth

The fact that Adultification Bias is an actually thing really bothers me because we should be supporting and caring for our youth, not stereotyping them and bringing them down to feel like less of what they are. Adultification bias erases the distinction between childhood and adulthood and girls are being treated as if they are a threat which is only harming them in the long run.

In the video, young black girls were the focus of the discussion. These girls described their experiences and how they were treated compared to their white friends. The whole idea of this video was that young black girls were being stereotyped for things that aren't necessarily true and they are seen as older woman instead of young girls compare to their white friends. 

Examples of stereotypes given to young black girls:

• They are loud, aggressive, and angry (which makes them threatening and disrespectful)
• It's assumed that they are cussing people out, drinking, and having sex

These black women describe their childhood and how they were stereotyped and seen as "less innocent" than their white peers. They also said that they were treated more like adults and they were held accountable for more things whereas a white girl would just get let off the hook with a talking to.

In the article, they talk a lot about teenagers and they have given them stereotypes based on things that aren't fair to them. One stereotype that was given to them is that "they are a problem" but they haven't come to the conclusion as to why they see them as a problem. It's not fair to these youth that they are being stereotyped and the truth is that adults fear the youth and that is the real problem.

All of these stereotypes are impacted by race, class, gender, and sexuality because not all of these stereotypes apply to everyone. For example, the two stereotypes that I gave, only pertained to young black girls not young white girls or boys. The example from the article can very much be impacted by gender because girls are seen as more innocent than boys and boys tend to get into more trouble and cause more problems.

A time that I experienced prejudice as a child:

    - I have played soccer from the time that I was 3 years old to when I was 16 years old. I always loved the sport and loved playing with the girls. However, my brother also played soccer and I wanted to be on his team. The team was supposed to be coed, which means that you can have both boys and girls on the team. But when I said that I wanted to play with the boys, they didn't think that I was good enough even though I was very good and I could hang with the boys. I ended up just having to play on the girl's team and they ended up changing the rules saying that girls were no longer allowed to play with the boys all because they didn't want me playing with them.

 All About Me!

My name is Lily Silveira and I'm a senior at Rhode Island College studying Youth Development. I like listening to country music and hanging out with friends in my spare time. I look forward to having a career working with youth and making a difference in their lives.

 "Youth Development Guide"

What did I already know?

- I already knew about the resiliency research that was done on young people and what they were able to learn about how resilient young people are. These studies examined young people who grew up with so many obstacles but still were resilient enough to look past those obstacles and life successful lives. Instead of focusing on the problems that young people had, they focused on what helped them to succeed. They discovered that young people who succeeded had the advantage of the three critical elements that young people are best when they have.

What did I learn?

- I learned what a deficit approach is and the main reasons why it failed. The deficit approach is an approach used for young people who exhibit signs of being "at risk" for negative behaviors such as drug use, teen pregnancy, higher school failure, and violence. It is designed to prevent these young people from engaging in these sorts of behaviors. One of the reasons why this approach failed is because it focused too narrowly on changing specific behaviors and didn't address the basic developmental needs that every young person needs. The main problem with this is that the focus was on all the bad and not the good. Young people didn't get the knowledge that they needed to be present in  their community being a part of things and having relationships with all kinds of people. Also, young people were divided into two groups, the ones who were "at risk" and the ones who were not, which is such a horrible thing to do because then the young people can feel discouraged and children should be given equal opportunity to have access to all kinds of resources and programs. This leads into the other reason why this approach failed, and that is their focus on isolated problems, which led to different kinds of programs that were available for those who were deemed "at risk". Focusing on the bad and not the good is never a good way to get young people to learn. 

What do I want to know more about?

- I would like to know more about the shift in policy from the deficit approach to the better, youth development approach and why they ultimately decided to make that shift. Also, I would like to know how that managed to get the funding to put this approach into place to better the programs for the young people.