Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

Racism

Racism is according to Wikipedia, Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature (i.e. which harms particular groups of people), and which is often justified by recourse to racial stereotyping or pseudo-science.

 Modern usage often equates "racism" and "racial discrimination" and defines the latter term only as applying to pernicious practices. Differential treatment of racial groups that is intended to ameliorate past discrimination, rather than to harm, goes by other names (e.g. affirmative action); the characterization of this practice as "racism", "racial discrimination" or "reverse discrimination" is normally only done by its opponents, and typically implies a belief in the harmful nature of the practice with respect to the groups not receiving assistance.

 Racism is popularly associated with various activities that are illegal or commonly considered harmful, such as extremism, hatred, xenophobia, (malignant or forced) exploitation, separatism, racial supremacy, mass murder (for the purpose of genocide), genocide denial, vigilantism (hate crimes, terrorism), etc.

 "Racism" and "racial discrimination" are often used to describe discrimination on an ethnic or cultural basis, independent of their somatic (i.e. "racial") differences. According to the United Nations conventions, there is no distinction between the term racial discrimination and ethnicity discrimination (Wikipedia, 2011).

My daughter went to one of her friends from school home for a few hours after school one day a few weeks ago. My daughter text me and ask how soon I would be picking her up because she felt uncomfortable. When I asked her what was wrong, she said she would tell me when I got there.

When I picked her up, she explained that the girl, her friend, sister and her sister’s friend were talking about black people. Of course her friend was of Caucasian race. My daughter said that every time a black person came into the McDonald’s the girls would make remarks like, there are two black guys. She also told me that they asked her if the black lady (me) was looking for her. I and my daughter are light skinned, so they might have thought that my daughter had at least on Caucasian parent.

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My daughter said that they were racist because they only talked about the African American people that came into the McDonalds that evening.

I believe that their parents have said things in front of them and given them indications about African Americans. The thought process influenced by older individuals such as the parent. The psychosocial pattern is that they were bought up with this type of stereo-typing from their parents and may even pick it up at school. These girls are teenage and probably been exposed to this this type of processing from early on, and through friends and other family members. Their mind set won’t allow them to think pass what they have learned. “Ideally parents anticipate misbehavior and guide their children towards patterns of behavior and internalized standards of morality that will help them lifelong. But parents can’t always anticipate ad prevent problems.” (Berger, p 296) My daughter was not raised in a conceited upbringing and does not discriminate and she also doesn’t like racism. I had to apologize for those girls and explain to my daughter that every boy isn’t like that. Her “besty buddie” is Caucasian, and I know why she felt uncomfortable.
One of the first social developments for children is with other children outside of their siblings. Children need to develop trust not only from parents, but from other people as well, not only other adults, but other children. What my daughter experienced did not have any influence on her and her friend, but think of the many children that may have took this as an insult, which could have injured them for life.

Racism is a global issue. “From the institutionalized racism especially in colonial times, when racial beliefs — even eugenics — were not considered something wrong, to recent times where the effects of neo-Nazism is still felt, Europe is a complex area with many cultures in a relatively small area of land that has seen many conflicts throughout history. (Many of these conflicts have had trade, resources and commercial rivalry at their core, but national identities have often added fuel to some of these conflicts.)” (Shah, 2010)

Reference

Berger, K. S., (2009) The developing person-through childhood. (5^th ed) Bronx Community College. Worth Publisher

Shah, A. (2010) Global issues-Social, political, economic, and environmental issues that affect us all. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism

Wikipedia, (2011) The free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism