A Conversation On Race Reveals Misinterpreted Minorities
A Conversation On Race
Reveals Misinterpreted Minorities
To the Editor:
We are part of the Conversations on Race program in Newtown High School. This class is used as a way to explore the controversies that occur in a racially segregated society.
Throughout the year we are able to examine the sources and enduring effects of internalized racial stereotypes, explain the ways in which racial and ethnic identity have shaped our perspectives on other races, and then you will be instructed to develop and implement a specific plan to heal racial wounds.
Stereotypes are taken too literally and this presents a problem between races. Minorities are misinterpreted in Newtown because of our lack of discrepancy. We believe the education in Newtown is bias because of the obsolete incompatibility.
âRacism is a problem which must be addressed with more than misguided measures like limiting offensive speech. Not only are such measures open to abuse, they also drive racism underground where it thrivesâ (Jonathan D. Karl, The Christian Science Monitor, August 23, 1990). Not only does this exist in Newtown but it also presents itself globally.
We are taught through the past generations and the media that the ethnological problem does not affect the typical white American. âUnlike White folks, Blacks are somehow expected to be a monolithic, homogeneous people whose characteristics are skewed to the negativeâ (Racism: Current Controversies).
The stereotypes that we are exposed to consist of:
éThey are promiscuous.
éThe majority of them are in to drugs or are drug dealers.
éThere are teen pregnancies.
éThey have a tendency to be known for their elevated crime rate.
éThere are many gangs (The Bloods and The Crips).
éThey are uneducated.
éThere are a very few white people, those who are there are contemptible.
éMany of them live in the projects.
About Bridgeport schools:
éThere are metal detectors.
éThere are a lack of rules.
éNo one cares and the teachers worry more about their safety than anything else.
éTheir environment is indecent.
éThey have lower level of education.
éGroups stick together (Hispanics, Blacks).
éThe students carry weapons.
The stereotypes listed above were the first thoughts Newtown students had of Bridgeport high schools and their students. However, throughout this course we have learned that things are not always black and white. Our teachers sought out to make us realize that we were made ignorant by society and denied true judgment.
The first activity we performed when we visited Bassick was to construct a âwheelâ that contained interests that we shared and also those that we thought might be individual. We realized after producing our individual lists that we had many if not all of the same âuniqueâ interests. This concluded that we are alike in more ways than we may have realized.
Knowing that people are imperceptive in changing that their ways, we know that by writing this letter you are not going to automatically accept the truth behind the stereotypes you let control your predilection. Our nation talks about âequalityâ for everyone when in fact when this opportunity is presented it will be suppressed. This unending cycle of inadequacy of comprehension is disparaging. The importance of this diffusion needs to be unveiled and addressed.
Sincerely,
Kayla A.M. Christeson
Maria A. Piscitelli
8 Pootatuck Trail, Sandy Hook                                 June 19, 2006