How Do We Make Racist Children?

*This article appears on the Five Percent Media website*

 

“Ignorance.” That is the short answer to the question, “How Do We Make Racist Children?” With all of the intelligence, expertise, lip service, and resources addressing this issue in America you would think that we would have figured this out by now. But no, we continue to grow children who become the kinds of adults that we saw desecrating the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday, January 6th. These are the same kinds of adults we saw in Wilmington Delaware in 1898, one hundred and twenty-two years ago, who violently overthrew a duly-elected government. For me, this behavior is not surprising. I could literally write about historical instances of violence perpetrated by Americans against their own citizens EVERY DAY for the next three years and still not exhaust that content. That is only 1,095 days. For 1,095 days I could exclusively write about lynchings and never have to discuss another topic. This is America and make no mistake about it, violence has been a staple of this society from its inception. Some people have been on the historical receiving end of that violence, while others have been its historical perpetrators.

Following the storming of the U.S. Capitol building by Pro-Trump supporters, we have heard both Democrats and Republicans proclaim, “This is not who we are” -which is one of the most disingenuous statements one could make, especially at a time like this. It is a boldfaced lie that denies the obvious existence of historical dissatisfaction, division and devilishment we have witnessed in this country. IT IS who you/we are… and until we can accept that uncomfortable reality we will not be able to perform the institutional autopsies needed to determine the cause of this cannibalism.

 

As an early childhood educator, I am always thinking about ways to foster the kind of growth and development that enables our youth to become caring critical thinking adults. From my experience and research, children are not born racist, sexist or etc. Babies are born into a societal womb that reinforces institutions, social norms and an economy that nourishes racist, sexist, ageist and other ideas just like blood vessels in a womb support the growth and development of a fetus. These ideas help set a child’s cognitive trajectory and contributes to shaping their worldview. We were all socialized like this, regardless how we ultimately grow up to define ourselves. A critical part of our growth and development journey is constantly performing a self diagnostic to check the bullsh*t ideas we have knowingly/unknowingly adopted along the way. Another important part of that journey is helping support others to do the same. Treating these racist, sexist or etc. ideas like they are harmless only creates a larger problem later on. For generations these problems of race, sex and etc. have been outright denied, ignored, minimized and treated as minor by the dominant society. This is the same dismissive way the garden snake was treated in Genesis until it grows into a fire-breathing dragon once you get to Revelations. Like Revelations, January 6th was a day of reckoning for America to face its uncomfortable truths.

So what can we do about this as adults? First and foremost it is important that we model the type of attitude, behavior and citizenry we would like to see and celebrate in our children. Because our youth are growing up in a society that promotes ideas that may not coincide with a worldview of freedom, justice and equality, we must be invested in helping them successfully navigate around, beneath, above and through racist, sexist and etc. ideas. Part of that means helping them develop their “spatial awareness”; one of the critical cognitive skills children start to learn in early childhood.

Spatial awareness is our position in space relative to the people, places and things around us. In early childhood, children start understanding the concepts of location, direction and distance which enables them to physically navigate their environment. They also begin to understand where they are; their point of origin and how they are oriented. For example, recognizing that a toy is across the room on a couch or the direction of a window in a room. When a child has challenges with spatial awareness they have difficulty navigating their environment, reaching destinations and understanding their position in relation to the people, places and things around them. When a child or even an adult does not understand their point of origin they will lack a sense of orientation. Without a sense of orientation, it is impossible to determine direction. This disorientation makes a person more prone to being lost and easily led in the wrong direction. Make sense?

What makes racism, sexism, ageism and etc. so insidious is these ideas distort a person’s spatial awareness and sense of orientation. These ideas pervert reality and warp a person’s ability to understand their socioeconomic position in relation to the people, places and things in society and their capacity to reach their goals. Consider how something like segregated drinking fountains twisted a person’s spatial awareness. Where an object only steps away had to be rationalized as being more distant than the Moon. What about women who have earned a certain position based upon quantifiable data but are consistently passed up for a promotion by unqualified men. There is no way to rationalize how those positions in society and distance to other people, places and things are what they are. In both of these examples, accessibility and the landscape that they see IS NOT what it truly is… While black and brown people are often told all they need to do is work hard to successfully get from point A to point B in life, it is more like the game Frogger. Some will argue that we all have challenges reaching our goals and that is true. What is also true is there have been and still are institutions, government policies and socioeconomic obstructions that have impeded the progress of specific segments of our American population. In other words, some frogs are facing an entirely different obstacle course that other frogs have never seen and will never see in their lifetime. Understanding and navigating a society that distorts our spatial awareness is difficult for adults. So just imagine how difficult it is for our children. The growing mental health crisis and expanding education on trauma-informed care in this country is a clear example of this.

To some people, this warped reality of racism, sexism, ageism and etc. puts them in an inferior position of disenfranchisement. This makes it difficult to navigate this environment, reach destinations and understand their position in relation to the people, places and things around them. To other people, this warped reality of racism, sexism, ageism and etc. puts them in a superior position of privilege. Thus they are able to navigate this environment, reach destinations and understand their position in relation to the people, places and things around them with relative ease. We are all socialized this way the moment we take our very first breath.

   When children are taught to be culturally competent, when we respectfully expose them to different worldviews, it encourages them to become caring critical thinking adults. They learn that everyone has something to offer of significance to this world and your skin color, gender, age or etc. does not make you superior or inferior to others. Teaching children the obvious ugliness of America, as well as its beauty, is also a vital part of this educational process. IT IS who they/we are. For some of us, America has been more of a nightmare than a dream. America has only existed for 244 years yet my ancestors were legally enslaved and segregated against for 189 of those years. This means that 78% of the time black people have been in America we were legally denied the right to participate in American society and have equal access to its resources, institutions and economy. In regards to spatial awareness, many of my people literally lost their lives… and still lose their lives… for “not knowing their place.” We will continue to make racist children, who become racist adults, by lying to them about this American landscape. They need to know what they are inheriting; good and bad. They need to be spatially aware and know their true position relative to the people, places and things around them. There is a short answer for that also. In my culture, we say that understanding is seeing things for what they are, not what they appear to be.

Peace,                                                                                                                                                    Saladin