Biracial American Populations - Term Paper Example

Biracial Children and the American School System Discrimination of Biracial Children in American Schools Introduction Biracial children are those born by parents of different races. The father may be Hispanic while the mother is Afro-American. Thus, these children have mixed heritage and values and their appearance is different from other children born of parents from the same race (Jones and Smith, 2001). These children often experience discrimination from their close relatives and their peers. At home, grandparents may be against the marriage of their parents leading to them rejecting children born in such a marriage. Sibling born by biracial parents often exhibit varying characteristics from different hair textures, hair colour and skin tone. In such a set up, children may find their other siblings amusing and hence taunt another. After enrolment in elementary schools, biracial children find it hard to settle and carry on with a normal school life like other children of one race. Such children find it hard to make friends from other races. They are often discriminated by other children as they are not involved in games and other co-curricular activities as they are often withdrawn. Bullying is common at elementary schools where their learning materials and lunch boxes often go missing (McClurg, 2004). Some are physically bullied and called names depending on their physical characteristics. Teachers often compound to the problem as they often pay less or no attention to biracial children misery. Some teachers have been known to directly taunt the biracial students. In Japan, children with Japanese and American heritage are often taunted by their teachers. They may be asked to narrate to the class about American history and wars since they look more of “Amerasian”. During the second word war, many children were born to US servicemen and Okinawan mothers. After the war, the fathers were deployed elsewhere, leaving the mother to raise the children. This resulted into biracial children who have often been discriminated in their schools. The problem reached such a magnitude that the mother to these children decided to build a school specifically for their “Amerasian” children (Jones and Smith, 2001). They could thus attend these schools with no fear of looking abnormal and thus lead a normal school life. It is often difficult to enrol biracial children in American schools. All the schools require the parent to fill some paperwork. It becomes hard to fill these forms correctly because they provide only two boxes to check the child’s race (while or black). They lack a multi-race box. It is a problem for a parent to fill in their children’s race as ‘other’ (McClurg, 2004). This becomes offensive to not only the parent but also to the child whose self-esteem may be affected. Children who experience any form of discrimination in their schools often have a difficult childhood. They perform poorly in class and co curricular activities. This impedes their development as they developed little interest in sports and academics. Their psychological development is poor, and they often become bullies and outlaws upon maturity (Hud-Aleem and Countryman, 2008). Their personal and also social skills, are underdevelopment, and they often find it difficult to establish any close relationship with people. Solutions Schools that enrol biracial need to implement the following solutions to address discrimination of biracial children. Several solutions are available in tackling this problem. First, an ethnic title needs to be developed to describe this category of individual (Hud-Aleem and Countryman, 2008). With such a title, these children would find an identity, and a means to empower themselves. It would in other way operate as a means to validate their existence and be recognised by the government in their capacity as biracial individuals. Such means of identity would give them the gut to counter the insensitive children and adults who discriminate them. Often, biracial find themselves to be a fragmented lot since they borrow their personalities and heritage from various distinct races. A title to identify them with would contribute to the feeling of wholeness. This has been shown to empower them in such a way that they are able to choose the appearance, their words and loyalties and most importantly, their behaviour. With such a magnitude of power, these children are able to defend themselves as a ‘complete’ race. In schools, they can be enrolled as a specific race and not in the category of ‘others’. They can also stand against bullies (DeVries, 1997). Secondly, family members and relatives have a major role in helping biracial children in forming personal identity (DeVries, 1997). Children are known to form their identities from what other people say about them. They internalise other people’s appraisals about them and begin to adopt a behave that is consistent with other people’s perceptions. This means that children identify with a given race group depending on their families perception. Hence, a child’s ability to identify with a particular race reflects what their family and community say about it. It is possible for a parent to influence their children to identify with a particular race. Children trust their parent’s explanations and hence it is possible for the children to accept themselves as biracial and pride in it. Such children will have a greater ability to counter discrimination in schools. The school administration should come up with counselling programmes to empower parents of biracial kids so as to raise their self esteem. Schools also need to encourage peer interaction among the kids. This can be done through sports; music and groups work assignments. Rheta De Vries (1997) says that interactions that the child makes are important in the construction of their values, moral feelings and intellectual development. In America, the society believes in this principle and elementary schools provide the children with opportunities to play and make friends hence enabling them acquire vital social skills. Friends that they make through these interaction avenues are maintained through their life. Although some are lost during development, they helped in providing the biracial children with a sense of security and acceptance (DeVries, 1997). Solutions provided above will help in eliminating bullying and discrimination of biracial children. Parents will play a vital role in helping their children accept their heritage. The school administration and teachers also have a duty to come up with programmes to that will enable biracial children be accepted by their fellow mono-racial peers (Haney Lopez, 2006). They can organise games, group work assignments and contests that will bring all the children together in the common pursuit. Applying the above proposed solutions may have several unintended consequences. The first solution provided proposes assigning an ethnic title to biracial children may not solve the problem of discrimination in schools. Some biracial children find it difficult to accept their fragmented heritage. Such children may never find a label enough to describe where one starts and stops (DeVries, 1997). Failure to adopt this solution means that discrimination of biracial children in schools will continue unchecked. The second solution involves parents playing a role of helping their children accept their looks and heritage. Adopting this measure has some drawbacks. The parent may choose to stress one race and overlook the other (DeVries, 1997). This is a pitfall since the child will as a child will reach a point where they have to divide their loyalty among the parents. The third solution touches on the role the school plays in shaping up the attitude of mono-racial children towards their biracial peers. Back draws of this solution if implemented is that some biracial children who have been gravely abused may never accept to participate in school programmes (DeVries, 1997). Conclusion Discrimination of biracial children is a real problem in our schools and should be eliminated by implementing the discussed solutions. Parents and teachers play a vital role in shaping up the character of the child. All forms of discrimination against biracial children by their peers have been learnt in one way, or another from the adults. References DeVries, R. (1997). Piaget's Social Theory. Educational Researcher, 26, 4-17. Haney Lopez, I. (2006). White by law: The legal construction of race. New York: New York University Press. Hud-Aleem, R., & Countryman, J. (2008, November). Biracial identity development and recommendations in therapy. Psychiatry (Edgemont), 5, 37-44. Retrieved from http://www.psychiatrymmc.com Jones, N., & Smith, A. (2001). The two or more races population: 2000. Retrieved October 13, 2009, from the U.S. Census Bureau website: http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/briefs.html McClurg, L. (2004). Biracial youth and their parents: Counselling considerations for family therapists. The Family Journal: Counselling and Therapy for Couples and Families, 12, 170-173. Read More