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Many of us are carelessly taught.

Nate Martin,
Port Angeles, WA

Rogers and Hammerstein posited “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught,” and this certainly applies to blatant, flagrant hatred. But the perniciousness is also perpetuated by myriad subtle and not-so-subtle cues passed along by those of us in the privileged caste, absorbed like the air we breathe and inflicted subconsciously on those who are choked-off in that system — the implicit bias and stereotype biases, accompanied by systemic and personal denial that results in such delusions as the “this is not a racist country” and “I can’t be a racist because I have black friends” phenomena.

Once uneducated/naive. I’m changing that.

Jordyn Ducotey,
Seattle, WA.

Recent events have really made me challenge my own thoughts and the perceptions that I have been taught. I consciously make an effort to expose myself to the injustices that are occuring in the world around me. I actively seek stories and look into them instead of listening to what my peers/the media feeds to me. I used to be the person to say, “Stop making everything about race.” and the other common phrases you hear these days. But after challenging myself and diving into the issues on my own, I’m so glad that I’ve learned that there are REAL issues going on. I now spend time trying to educate others, while continuing to educate myself. I think that education is the most important part. People will not change their views on this unless they are educated about it.

Small towns don’t care for diversity

Tess Junge,
St. Paul, MN

Growing up in a small town as a white person, I really didn’t have an understanding of racism. It wasn’t taught in our underfunded school of 300 kids that would have been exclusively white if not for the two students of color. Using textbooks that were two decades old, we were taught slavery and racism existed at some point but Martin Luther King Jr. fixed everything. We were taught that we lived in the northern United States and racism just didn’t exist in the North. Looking back, there were so many things people, often adult figures, would say that were extremely prejudiced. It was, to put it lightly, not a welcome environment for any racial diversity. Moving to a larger metropolitan area was like a whole other world. I had no idea things like police brutality, red lining, environmental racism, and so many other things even existed. I’ve learned a lot over the years and my home town has become more diverse but it still has a long way to go.

Taught all wrong, now teaching others

2013-10-29-17.40.07Steve Jones,
Durham, NC.

I grew up in a segregated community and the concept that African-Americans (of course, not the word that was used) were inferior. It took a long time to get out of that mindset and even longer to acknowledge the privilege that comes with my white skin. It’s a privilege to be able to teach about race in the US today as a way of undoing what I experienced.

Being gay has taught me compassion.

Thomas Swinscoe
Akron, OH

I grew up in a time when being gay was even more of a challenge than it is today. As a white, male of English/German descent who was raised Christian, I have come to see my sexual identity as a gift. I believe much the insight and empathy I enjoy is a direct result of being a minority. I don’t think you have to be a minority to be empathetic or compassionate , but it sure made it easy for me! Sometimes I wonder what kind of person I would have become were I not gay.

HammersteinII: You’ve Got to be Taught.

Luc Charwin
Salem, OR

It may be trite and unoriginal to use someone else’s words. However, the lyrics of that song brought this topic into focus for me. In grade school a friend’s father did not allow David and I to share the experience of a week-long school camping trip. David was one of several friends of mine who had darker complexions than “Pale Face” me. I never understood that possible discrimination. I have tried not to respond in kind. I hope I’ve been more successful than not.

Mexican but dont Speak Spanish, thats ok

Monique Martinez,
Riverside, CA.

I am half Mexican and half Filipino but everyone always thinks I am full Mexican. When they find out I am mixed, half the time they don’t believe me. Then when they find out I don’t speak Spanish, I get comments like “how do you not know Spanish, you not a real Mexican.” The thing is my dad never taught it to me so I never got the opportunity to learn it and I wish I did know Spanish, but that does not make me any less Mexican.
CBU HIS311

I am not wrong, I’m different.

Back when I was a kid, I used to wonder why or how people are different, why do we all have different races? When I was in preschool, my mom would always tell me not to play with kids that were bad. Those kids were black. She said that they were troublemakers, misbehaved, and that they don’t have any manners. And of course, I believed her. Most of my life, I only cared about what somebody looked like on the outside. Now, I know how wrong of me it was to assume somebody’s personality. This project has changed me a lot in many ways. It has taught me how we all need to be fair to each other, it has taught me that nobody’s appearance screams out their identity, I have also learned that not everyone is a bad person and that people are different.

Race is not natural, it’s taught.

It all began in the 18th century. Scientists developed categorizing things in nature, including humans. According to the RACE website, “The 19th century also marked a period of widespread racialization—not just of African Americans—but of Native Americans, Mexican Americans and Chinese Americans as well. Much of the racializing of non-Europeans, and even the Irish, served an economic and political purpose.” This is not fair. People were categorized into groups. Blacks, Asians, Mexicans, Italians, separated from each other. Why were we categorized? As reported in “The Story of Race and the Classification of People”, “ In 1680 AD, the idea of classification by appearance slowly began to permeate society as lawmakers in the early colonies of North America began to use “white” as a classification of themselves rather than “Englishmen” or “Christians.” See how this is not fair? I’m pretty sure we all have questions about race such as, aren’t we all just one human race? Will racism ever go away? How do we become racists?, How did racism start?, and who started racism? Some of these answers can’t be found…but one thing I know is that race is not a natural thing, it is the others that taught us.

Prejudice is taught; let’s unteach it.

KarenKaren W. Gronau,
Perry Hall, MD.

I taught elementary school for four decades. I saw a good change over the years. My classes became more integrated. More importantly, over time, many of my students did not see color in their choice of friends. Change is way too slow though.

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