The Effects of Ism"s

“ The impact of race and racism continues to powerfully influence the life prospects of America’s children” (Derman-Sparks, 2010, p. 77). In my opinion, I think that Tina’s family was the one to influence her about the type of children she can and cannot play with and of course Tina did not come to realize this until later on in life. Tina’s parents did not want her playing with anyone of color, which I did not agree with because I think Tina should be allowed to pick her own friends regardless of their skin color. Also, I did not like the idea that Tina’s parents would treat her brothers better than they would her. I think when a parent has more than one child in the family all of them should be treated equally.  My personal experience with racism happened when I was 10. My uncle is black and his wife is white. So my cousin is of mixed raced. I was walking home with my cousin when we started talking about how the other children in her class had singled her out and made her feel bad about the color of her skin. She no longer wanted to be mixed, she wanted to be white. I said "You do know that you father is black don’t you?" She did not reply. I went home and cried because she made me feel bad about just the color of our skin, and how she let the other children get to her. My father wanted to go to the school to address this issue with the teacher and the children but I told him not to. My cousin later on told me that over one night she had realized that racism was wrong and that I was her best friend.   And at the end of the day, I always have to ask myself, why does race really matter? We are all humans, born to live and die, laugh and love. Be who we are and no one else. And that is what I am living now. Luckily I have never been racist though. Racism is stupid and useless. The most important thing to have is an open mind and an open heart. Color is irrelevant and does not define anyone.       Resources   Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).