Sharing a link first:
“When Too Few Minorities
Are Too Many”
It is very easy to walk on to a college campus, to look
around and think you are seeing diversity. Yes, you might see people of different
creeds, cultures, and colors (we are all one race, the human race). However, if
you actually look at the school stats, you will find that things are still very
skewed. Some of it has to do with things that started long before the kids ever
got to college, civil rights in America were only just granted within living
memory of a lot of people, and the fact that affirmative action is still
necessary means that there are still problems to fix.
Anyway, the type of racism I am talking about is something
that we can control, and that is how we treat people. Have you ever spent time
in the south? We often think of the south as the bastion of racism (I am not disputing
history here), but what you will notice is how unfailingly polite everyone is.
Just simple good manners that seem to have been forgotten by many people. That
is where we start, by simply being polite.
Racist jokes are not funny because they hurt people, exclusion
and shunning all because someone is different, is like putting someone in solitary
confinement in prison. Humans are communal, we need to belong, and when you
have a culture that is not welcoming, bad things happen.
Forget about school violence for a moment and let us look at
the dropout rate and suicide; I do not have the exact numbers but they are higher
than they should be. Cyber bullying seems to be all the rage now, and we do
nothing because it is ‘virtual’ not physical.
This is all preventable, start by being nice; yes, I believe
it is that simple. We do not have to accept the level of rudeness that currently
exists and schools should enforce a simple code of good relations. Words like please,
may I, you are welcome, and thank you should be back in fashion.
Teach our students to be polite, it will translate to school.
Dr Flavius A
B Akerele III
The ETeam
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