It was planned by teachers for their elementary school students. They sang and displayed signs that read “One World” and “One Race.”
More than 90 percent of the teachers were white.
And no, it wasn’t supposed to be a Klan rally.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Resist racism 
Where was this and what else did they do besides sing songs? I can see how this idea could go wrong and be turned into support of a ‘color blind’ mentality which is certainly a bad idea but human beings are biologically one race. Of course we have cultural differences which need to be affirmed and celebrated but I don’t think it is a bad thing to be aware that we are all one human race and the idea of “race” as we currently use it is purely a social construct.
that’s nice, but did you read the second line at all?
Yeah I think I see what you are saying, this could certainly have been mistaken (especially by young impressionable minds) as to mean we white teachers are the ‘one race’ that matters, further perpetuating the mainstream mythology that white is superior. However, I would like to believe that these teachers were well-intentioned although there are a lot of well-intentioned people out there doing very racist things. I think the concept of ‘one race’ is probably too complicated to introduce to elementary aged students (well at least not by having white teachers sing songs about ‘one race’). It’s difficult to teach about diversity in a homogenous environment- which underlines the much deeper rooted issue of why are 90% of the teachers white. . . or am I totally missing it again?
@Brienne: you are missing it again. Do you think kids, and even more importantly, the white teachers, really understand about the biological definition of race vs what they understand as race?
is it bad that I laughed at this?
It’s a stupid situation that obviously wasn’t well thought out – but the juxtaposition of the last line:
“And no, it wasn’t supposed to be a Klan rally.”
just made me giggle.
@ Sonic, right, that’s what I meant when I said “I think the concept of ‘one race’ is probably too complicated to introduce to elementary aged students.” But I think you bring up an important point that white teachers too often don’t understand the difference between the biological definition of race and what we understand as race. The fact that this event was allowed to happen makes me realize that most likely this actually was an attempt to promote a “color blind” society. Now that I think about it, anyone who does understand the difference between the biological definition of race and our perception of it would not have made the mistake of singing songs about ‘one race’ to young children.