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Discrimination Whereas prejudice is based on attitudes,…
Discrimination
Whereas prejudice is based on attitudes, discrimination focuses on behavior. Discrimination occurs at two levels: individual and institutional. Individual discrimination is attributable to, or influenced by, prejudice. Individuals discriminate against members of a group because they have strong prejudicial, or bigoted, feelings about the group or they believe that society demands they discriminate. For example, real estate agents, human resources managers, receptionists, and membership chairpersons all work directly with a variety of individuals. Their own personal attitudes about members of a group can influence decisions such as whether a house is sold, a job is offered, a loan is granted, an appointment is made, a meal is served, or membership is granted to an individual. The actions of these individuals can prevent others from gaining the experiences and economic advantages that these decisions offer.
An individual has less control over the other form of discrimination. Institutional discrimination refers to inequalities that have been integrated into the system-wide operation of society through legislation and practices that ensure benefits to some groups and not to others. Laws that disproportionately limit immigration to people from specific countries are one example. Other examples include practices that lead to a disproportionately large percentage of African American males being incarcerated; single, low-income mothers being denied adequate prenatal care; and children in low-income neighborhoods suffering disproportionately from asthma as a result of poor environmental conditions.
We have grown up in a society that has a long history of discrimination against people of color, low-wage earners, women, and people with disabilities. We often do not realize the extent to which members of some groups receive the benefits and privileges of institutions such as schools, Social Security, transportation systems, and banking systems. Because we may think that we have never been discriminated against, we should not assume that others do not suffer from discrimination.
Some people argue that institutional discrimination no longer exists because today’s laws require equal access to the benefits of society. As a result, they believe that individuals from all groups have equal opportunities to be successful. They fight against group rights that lead to what they perceive to be preferential treatment of the members of one group over others. The government is usually accused of going too far toward eliminating discrimination against historically oppressed groups by supporting affirmative action, contracts set aside for specific groups, special education, bilingual education, and legislation that requires comparable resources for men’s and women’s athletics.
However, the criteria for access to the good life are often applied arbitrarily and unfairly. A disproportionately high number of people of color and students with disabilities have had limited opportunities to gain the qualifications for skilled jobs or college entrance or to obtain the economic resources to purchase homes. As businesses and industries move from the city to the suburbs, access to employment by those who live in the inner city becomes more limited. A crucial issue is not the equal treatment of those with equal qualifications but equal accessibility to the qualifications and jobs themselves.
The roles of teachers and other professional educators require that they not discriminate against any student because of his or her group memberships. This consideration must be paramount in assigning students to special education and gifted classes and in giving and interpreting standardized tests. Classroom interactions, classroom resources, extracurricular activities, and counseling practices should be evaluated to ensure that discrimination against students from specific groups is not occurring.
Privilege
Privilege is a social system that we have inherited. “Privileges are benefits based on social group membership that are available to some people and not others, and sometimes at the expense of others” (Adams & Zúñiga, 2018, p. 46). However, privilege is invisible to most members of the dominant group; they do not have to think about it because they are not affected negatively by their privilege (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017).
We all have grown up in a racist, sexist, classist, ableist, and homophobic society. White people, who are primarily European Americans, generally do not think of themselves as White, financially secure, Christian, English-speaking, or heterosexual. In fact, not all White people are financially secure or Christian or English-speaking or heterosexual. However, they are privileged in society because their race gives them advantages of which they are not always aware. Earlier in this chapter, you learned that all of us are multicultural, being members of multiple groups. We are members of both dominant and oppressed or subordinate groups. Our membership in one group gives us privilege over other groups while we may be oppressed as a result of our membership in another group. For example, a White, heterosexual, working-class Christian woman has the advantage of privilege as a White heterosexual Christian but is not privileged as a working-class woman.
Privilege should not necessarily have a negative connotation because one benefits from privilege. However, individuals who are privileged by being born into the dominant group should explore the meaning of privilege and its relationship to the oppression that profoundly shapes the lives of people with low incomes, women, people of color, people with disabilities, and people who are LGBTQI+ (Johnson, 2018). Many White people have not had or have not taken the opportunity to explore their own ethnicity and privileged position in society. They often have not studied or interacted with groups to which they do not belong. Therefore, they have not explored where they fall along the continuum of power and inequality in society.
What does privilege look like? How often have you been confronted with the following situations?
Turning on the television or opening the newspaper and not seeing people of your racial group widely represented
Speaking in public to a male group without putting your gender on trial
Performing well on a project without being called a credit to your racial or ethnic group
Being asked to speak for all people of your racial or religious group
Asking to talk to “the person in charge” and finding a person of your racial group
Worrying that you have been racially profiled when you are stopped for a traffic violation
Being followed around by a clerk or security person when you shop (McIntosh, 2016)
To be successful, White people are not required to learn to function effectively in a second culture, as are members of other groups. The privileged curriculum reinforces this pattern. It is the members of the oppressed groups who must learn the culture and history of European Americans, often without the opportunity to study in depth their own ethnic group or to validate the importance of their own history and lived experiences. It is as if they do not belong. This feeling can lead to marginalization and alienation from school when students do not see themselves in the curriculum, do not feel a part of the school culture, and are never selected as leaders in the school. Just because we are members of one or more privileged groups, we don’t have to consciously support privilege as we interact with others and carry out our responsibilities throughout the day. We can confront the inequities that result from our privilege and work to eliminate them in our work and society.
Many teachers do not recognize the inequality, racism, and powerlessness that work against the success of students of color, girls, English language learners, non-Christians, students from low-income families, and students with disabilities. We often do not see the microaggressions that some of our students face on a daily basis nor understand the hurtful damage they cause. We often don’t realize when these slights, insults, and insensitivities occur and that we have been the perpetuator of those microaggressions because they have become so natural (Johnson, 2018).
Explore and Focus Your Cultural Lens
Debate: Whose Knowledge Should Be Taught?
The curriculum of the first schools in the United States was greatly influenced by the religion of the early European settlers. The New England Primer, which was the primary textbook used in the colonies, included the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the books of the Bible. Following the immigration of Irish Catholics in the 1830s and 1840s, parents complained about the Protestant-based curriculum, leading to riots in New York City and Philadelphia. Because no agreement about the curriculum was reached, parents chose to establish their own private Catholic schools rather than send their children to the Protestant public schools (Spring, 2018). Although the curriculum gradually became more secular, many schools continued to open school with prayer until the 1960s.
During the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the curriculum was again under attack for its almost exclusive reflection of European American history, values, and traditions. College students participated in protests and sit-ins calling for the inclusion of their cultures in the college curriculum. Colleges and some high schools added ethnic studies, women studies, and LGBTQI+ studies to the curriculum, but they were majors, minors, or electives not required of all students. Advocates for multicultural education pushed for the incorporation of the history, literature, music, and art of diverse groups throughout the curriiculum and school. To ensure that diverse groups were studied in school, Black History Month (February), Hispanic History Month (September), American Indian History Month (November), Asian/Pacific History Month (May), Women’s History Month (March), and Gay and Lesbian Pride Month (June) were initiated. Most major history and language arts textbooks began to reflect more accurate representations of the U.S. population.
Where are we today? The culture wars continue in debates about what should be included in the curriculum. The subject area that is particularly contentious is social studies, but the lessons are important for other subjects as well. What constitutes facts? From whose perspective are those facts interpreted? How do facts inform current debates? How accurate is the history that is being taught in schools? How can we eliminate the privileging of one group’s history and culture? These questions are very important because the perspective(s) presented in textbooks become adopted as our shared history. What are the arguments for accurately reflecting the diversity of the nation’s population and multiple perspectives in today’s curriculum?
FOR
All students should see themselves in the books read, the art displayed on school walls, the word problems used in mathematics, and all school activities.
Most events can be interpreted differently. Exploring multiple perspectives makes the event more transparent and allows students to see how the event impacted on the different groups involved. For example, the westward movement is viewed quite differently from the perspective of American Indians than the European Americans who made and enforced policy at that time. The union movement is viewed differently by the working class than the owners of businesses.
The inclusion and exploration of the literature, music, art, history, lived experiences, and contributions of the major cultural groups in the United States and cultural groups in the school community contribute to equity, respect of cultures different than our own, and the elimination of stereotypes and misconceptions about our own and other groups.
Until racism, sexism, classism, and other isms are confronted and eliminated in schools, the polarization of groups at school and society will remain.
AGAINST
The United States has Anglo-Saxon roots that have served the nation well. The great books of literature and thought from Western culture should serve as the foundation for the U.S. school curriculum.
The inclusion of important negative milestones in the history of the United States such as the genocide of American Indians, slavery, and the internment of Japanese Americans is too brutal to be presented to students and makes the United States look bad.
The culture of White Protestants is being denigrated and lost when other cultures are integrated into the school curriculum.
Liberal professors and teachers are indoctrinating students with progressive ideas and socialism.
Questions for Discussion
1. Why do multiculturalists think that the inclusion of the histories and experiences of the multiple cultural, racial, ethnic, and religious groups that comprise the U.S. population should be incorporated in the school curriculum? Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
2. Why do some people fight the creation of an inclusive curriculum and the incorporation of multiple perspectives in the curriculum? Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
3. Who do you think should be involved in determining the content of the school curriculum? Why?
