Essay On Racial Bias In Education

First of all, children are able to differentiate skin colors through observation and personal experience and to limit their racial bias there is a need to increase awareness about race and racism in education. There is no truth as statements like: “children cannot see differences between race”, “do not talk to your children about race that will put idea in their head.” The reality is that children, starting at a very young age, “categorize” their entourage and people “by race and gender” (Winkler, 2009).

For the children, the awareness of race come very early (Winkler, 2009). The more they grow up the more they show and develop racial bias (Winkler, 2009). Some pessimist would say if children express racial bias, it is the fault of their parents but in fact most of

There are two reasons why children do have biases, the first one is that they “engage in transductive reasoning” which means that if they see people “who are alike, for example skin colors,” they will identify those persons alike in “other dimensions” such as “abilities or intelligence” (Winkler, 2009). The more important thing though is that children observed that racial categories are very important in society (Winkler, 2009).

Another problem is that parents are not willing to have discussion on those subjects with their child even if the children see those issues everywhere, in the media, in school (Winkler, 2009). Therefore, there is a need to increase awareness about race and racism. There are many ways to do it. The very first step is to educate children about racial bias and talk with them about it because children “deserve to learn about racial justice and white privileges” (Bruce, 2015). They should also “talk to [their] children and acknowledge that racial differences and bias exist” (Knopf, 2017). It is essential to “have open talks” with children about “race”, “diversity”, “racism”