Racism & Inequality

How does a child deal with racism when they don’t yet know what it is? How can a child understand and grasp the concept of racism when they are ignorant to its existence? As a firm believer that racism and other prejudices and biases are taught, not learned, to children by the tainted adults in their life, it was quite hard for me to try and understand why my parents would get upset when I was singled out or when I mentioned daily scenarios in passing to them and be met with an angry huff or a frown. Thinking their anger was directed at me, it took years before I realized that my parents were upset at the actions of the people I was describing and the stressor that was racism and that it even existed in my innocent world.

The belief in unfounded stereotypes is passed down from one generation to the next. For a child to deal with racism in school, as I did, leaves a profound impact on learning how to get along with others. Being in a situation as the only African-American girl in my class, I found it difficult to find someone to relate to and for many years, was unaware of my true background. When we were assigned projects on our cultural background, I always said I was from Ghana. It wasn’t as accepted back then (and possibly because of my parents’ influence) to say that (though it obviously wasn’t a secret), our family history is from the slave trade. Now, I explain my background to people as Southern Black, meaning my family was brought over to this country from Africa during the salev trade and the majority of them and generations to come remained in the south once slavery was abolished. That cultural background and history gives me a rich dynamic when it comes to food, music and genetics. However, back when I was a little girl, it was much easier to give up that identity and make it easy on the White teachers who were expecting this project, to make it simple, clear and avoid making any waves by just saying I was from Africa. The sad part is (as I said above), my parents encouraged this.

Since Ghana was my make-believe homeland, I decided to look up stressors that affect their children. It was hard to focus on one area because I was met with a deluge of information (poverty, child labor, sexuality, infectious diseases). One of the bigger issues is female genital mutilation. While I was studying for my undergrad degree the first time, I wrote a final paper on FGM in Africa and am surprised to see that it is still a problem that plaues young women in Africa. This speaks to the inequality of the sexes, which is quite amazing to me to see the dynamics in other countries, compared to the US. According to the Fact Sheet on Harmful, Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children, one of the most noticeable achievements at the international level has been the lifting of the taboo against addressing the issue of female genital mutilation, which is now acknowledged as a violation of the human rights of women and the girl child.

 

Immunizations…against what?

There is such a widespread debate, regarding immunizing children. Some of those in favor of immunizations believe that it helps to ward off and fight diseases that can ultimately attack a child’s immune system. Therefore, this process keeps the children healthy, their learning environments healthy and builds a strong immune system. Those that are against immunizations have a myriad of reasons why not, such as religious reasons and even stating that certain immunizations are the cause leading to autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

This particular topic stood out to me this week because I spent the greater part of the past two weeks, ensuring that all of our students’ health records were up to date and recalled one student whose family did not believe in giving any immunizations at all for religious purposes. Believing that God will supply all that their body needs and will properly defend against any anitbodies or negative viruses, they chose not to have their child immunized. On a personal note, I observe this child in passing every day and he seems like the happiest, well-adjusted child with a smile that can light up a room. But, does this mean that if there is an outbreak of chicken pox in his classroom, will his fight be greater than any other child who has had an immunization? There exists a strong dichotomy of separation between church and state because thoough that is their religious right, the state officials are saying no, he must be immunized.

Children in China are required to get a total of 12 immunizations to fight off diseases similiar to those in America (with the exception of Japanese encephalitis): tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, measles, rubella, mumps, hepatitis B, hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, and meningococcal meningitis types A and C. The difference between China and America however, is that their government stipulated that these shots must be given free of charge, while here in America, parents can’t afford to have their child vaccinated. Unfortunately, in China, the funds have not yet become available to be able to do so as effectively, as they wished. Unfotunately, the immunization problem exists on different cultural and national levels but within that problem co-exists sub problems that no one has yet to solve.