Megan Hendrix

Dr. Rubin
September 17, 2017
ESE 440

America: Post Racial?

In the United States today, it is very easy to say that we are far more advanced than some

of the other countries in many ways. Though we can say this about many things in our country,

we can not say this same thing about race. Our country is far from being post racial. There are

some people that have moved past being racist and they treat everyone equally, but that can not

be said for our entire country. In todays time, we still have hate crimes, which should have been

done away with a long time ago. We still have disputes about political issues involving people of

certain races. Some of the biggest problems faced are involving police officers that are of a

certain race. We even have problems within our health care systems, schools, and occupations.

Racial incidents are probably some of the worst ones that go on in our country today and they

could be solved so easily.

There are many things that go on in our everyday lives that show racism that a lot of

people would not think of. In 2010, for example, the median usual weekly earnings of white

men ($1,273) working in the highest paying occupation group (i.e., full-time in management,

professional, and related occupations) was significantly above black men in the same occupation

group ($957) (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2013) (Warde 252). This is a huge issue. Race should

not be a deciding factor on how much someone gets paid. Two people with the same occupation

should be given the same salary. Another issue with race is in health care. It is shown as a whole,

that white people receive more care. For example, only 7% of black pre-school children,

compared to 21% of white children are prescribed routine medications to prevent future asthma-
related hospitalizations (AHRQ 2013) (Warde 255). Another example would be that blacks are

13% less likely to undergo life saving coronary angioplasty and one third less likely to undero

bypass surgery than whites (AHRQ 2013) (Warde 254).

In Heather Hackmans article titled Five Essential Components for Social Justice

Education, she covers the 5 components very thoroughly. Tool five seems to be one of the more

important ones. It is called Awareness of Multicultural Group Dynamics. When it is discussed

within Hackmans article, it is made evident that, as teachers, we must conform to the type of

children within our classrooms. She says For example, in an all white classroom situated in an

all-white community, the content presented regarding racism and white privilege will be

different than it would be in a classroom with diverse racial identities, which is different, again,

from a classroom with all students of color. The form and type of content that the teacher

presents, the attention to how these different class compositions affect dialogue and facilitation,

and the amount of time spent on content versus process will differ for these three classrooms

(Hackman 108). This shows that we must conform our lessons to match the different cultures and

races within our classrooms. This is where the role of racism within our schools today comes

into play. Some teachers do not see all children as equal because of their race, which means they

do not make their lessons friendly for each race within their classrooms. The idea of racism is a

huge issue throughout not just schools, but our entire country. It is so important that we as

teachers try to steer our children away from racial thoughts and make everyone feel equal.

Helping White Students Explore White Privilege Outside the Classroom by Silvia Niehuis

is an article written about an experiment done to help show the privilege of white people. She

gave her participants a scenario in which they had to go to the store and try to find certain things

on a grocery list that was written by an African American woman. This list consisted of things
like bandages, make-up, a fashion magazine and a book and toy for her 6 year-old daughter.

There was a catch on these things among the others on the list. They all had to be for an African

American woman, meaning the bandages and makeup had to match the skin tone of an African

American. The fashion magazine had to be for an African American Audience as did the

childrens book. The participants ran into many problems. Students generally reported being

able to find some but not all of the items on their shopping list (Niehuis 486). They also said

Bandages in ones own skin color were impossible to find (Niehuis 486).

Although statistics show that in some ways we have moved closer to being a post racial

country, we are no where near where we should be. The amount of issues within our schools,

health care systems, and occupations, among other things, dealing with race is astounding. There

are so many issues that could be solved within the world if people could learn to view each other

as being equal. The only thing keeping people from moving past the racial stereotypes and issues

is the color of everyones skin. Although it seems ridiculous to judge someone based on the color

of their skin, there are still so many people in the United States that do it.
Hackman, Heather W. Five Essential Components for Social Justice Educaton. Equality &

///////////////Excellence in Education. 2005. 103-109. Print.

Niehuis, Syvia. Helping White Students Explore White Privilege Outside the Classroom.

///////////////North American Journal of Psychology. 2005. 481-492. Print.

Warde, Bryan. Why Race Matters 50 years After the Enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

///////////////2013. 251-259. Print.