Racial Discrimination; Not a Thing of the Past

“There is someone who will suggest that racism is a thing of the past” (Tatum, 123). Whenever we discuss in class that people truly believe that racism is a thing of the past and that there is no more racial discrimination I find it to be mind-boggling. Today, there is still stereotypical images of people of color on the media, there is still discrimination within communities and articles written about racial biases. In my opinion, the people who believe that racism is truly a thing of the past are not paying attention to everything that is happening around us. It’s interesting to think that we are exposed to racial discriminations as early as pre-school and learn misinformation about other people who are different from us. I think that since we are exposed to such racial discriminations at such a young age, it is so important for educators to acknowledge this and educate even at such a young age about race and racial discrimination. This is so important to educate because almost all of the information children learn at such a young age are not from first hand experiences, they are from the adults around us, television, or books. Another concept that i think that is important to educate not only younger children on, but everyone is that not only white people can be racist, “people of any racial group can hold hateful attitudes and behave in racially discriminatory and bigoted ways” (Tatum, 128). For now, the question I raise to everyone is how do we get people to pay more attention to the racial discrimination happening all the time around us and realize that racial discrimination is not a thing of the past?