education – Contemporary Racism

The Truth Has Yet To Be Taught

Brandon Rosenblatt — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:40:33 +0000

Ever wonder about when you were taught about slavery in your history class in high school or middle school? Well, what if the curriculum was flawed? The answer is yes, that history about slavery is not being taught accurately in classes. When I was in elementary school and middle school, we discussed the founding fathers such as George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. We learned about how these men were inspirational and admirable leaders, ...

Belonging In The White World? I Think Not!

Alex Palmer — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:29:01 +0000

One thing that has caught my attention through research is the idea that, despite efforts made by white institutions to create inclusion and equal access opportunities, people of color still feel unrepresented and marginalized. This raises the question of whether it is even possible for people of color to feel welcomed in white institutions. Belonging is defined as a deep sense of connection and feeling of community within a given space, and to feel welcomed ...

Why is Psych So W.E.I.R.D.?

Emily Broadhurst — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 18:53:05 +0000

Psychology is constantly evolving, however that being said, it still has its flaws. Have you noticed that psychological research is biased? Early psychology is surrounded in white culture and unfortunately, it has led to current psychology remaining the same. The reason that psychology is grounded in whiteness, is due to the fact that white supremacy still exists and the lasting effects of it. The lack of diversity within psychological research is alarming. WEIRD stands for ...

Bad Education

C6 — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 17:37:47 +0000

What makes a class good? That thought crossed my head frequently this semester. And it often happened under recurring circumstances, as I would walk out of a class that was quite frustrating to get through. Fifteen minutes after this class ended, one of my most thought provoking and important classes began, Contemporary Racism. The dichotomy of these two classes really got me in a comparative headspace, also due to the fact that both classes attempted ...

Black History in the U.S. is More Than a Month

PJ R — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 17:28:53 +0000

It would be a lie to say that my pre-college education did not expose me to the history of slavery, segregation, and racism in the United States. It would also be a lie to say that I was told the whole truth about it. I was fortunate enough to go to a school system that, I believe, prepared me for college about as well as I could hope. I can read, for one thing, and ...

Stop Before You Stereotype

Natstermac — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:26:47 +0000

I was born in a land littered with Confederate flags. Each flag you drive past holds generations worth of harmful stereotypes about Black Americans. Even if you aren’t from South Carolina, like me, stereotypes are constantly around us. They are found through our thoughts, conversations with others, information from the media, etc. Once we understand that a stereotype exists, what do we do with them? Do we let them control our thoughts and interactions? And ...

The Misinformation in the United States

Ricardo Caamano — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 19:06:23 +0000

Throughout United States history people are continuing to believe things that are not true. Not only are they not true, but they are disgusting and horrible. People who believe in stereotypes which are attitudes and beliefs, usually they are prejudiced which are ill feelings towards people. Which is also related to discrimination which is behaviors against people. These stereotypes are not true, they are racist. In the readings we learned that people who joke about ...

Let’s talk about racism! Sure…But when?

Chau Dinh — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 15:55:12 +0000

My first American history lesson started with the Crash Course series on YouTube in the summer of 2017, about two months before I came to the States. My “teacher” was a white woman from Texas whose name I failed to remember, who seemed nice and honestly was the spitting image of white Americans in media products I had consumed. She taught me everything from “checks and balances,” “electoral college,” and the Constitution to using “bathroom” ...

The Dismantle of Affirmative Action: Racist or Not?

Louis_Lunch — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:06:07 +0000

In June of 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions. The Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, the equal protection clause. Their claim was that using race in admissions gives an advantage to people of color to get into institutions. This ties into the color-blind ideology where people often say “I don’t see color.” By practicing this ideology they are ...

Let’s Be Biased Together

Ibrahim Sidibeh — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 18:39:35 +0000

I am biased. You are, too. Let’s accept it. Bias is an ingrained part of human nature. We all have preconceived notions, stereotypes, and biases that influence our thoughts, actions, and interactions with the world around us. However, the way our brains navigate the world and interact with every social environment we’re in, we NEED to have biases and generalizations. Our brains need to have shortcuts so they can function efficiently, and we don’t have ...

Dismantling White Spaces: POC’s Impact on Alpha Chi Omega

Kaylin Foss — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 18:24:00 +0000

Alpha Chi Omega, one of the four active sororities at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA has recently undergone a pivotal transformation – a transformation from a historically white organization to an increasingly diverse and inclusive space. In the week of 9/18/2023, Alpha Chi Omega (AXO) extended bids (an invitation to join the organization) to 18 new members. Out of the 18, ten of the women are people of color. Before the bids were extended, during ...

Learning Limits

Maridie Niare — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 15:37:21 +0000

Being from the Bronx, I grew up under the notion that the majority of people went to either public or charter schools and that the very select few, AKA rich white people, had gone to boarding or private schools. The notion of going to a private school and dorming was something that I thought would only be accessible to me through TV, namely Zoey 101, which is a popular show that takes place while the ...

White Kids: Let’s be Antiracist

Maya Illovsky — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 13:23:06 +0000

White parents, you all really need to step up… If we want to better our society in opposition to issues of racial injustice and inequality, we must begin at a young age. As White parents, you must really talk to your children before these ingrained, societal beliefs corrupt their brains in believing they have privilege due to the color of their skin. White children need to speak out, become educated, and appreciative of other races, ...

Education is for Everyone

Adebisi Adetoye — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 14:30:46 +0000

In “Whiteness in the Psychological Imagination” Dr. Jonathan Lassiter, a Psychology professor, wrote about whiteness in academia and its effects on students of color. There were many aspects of this piece that resonated with me, but none so more than when Dr. Lassiter referenced a conversation he had with a Black female classmate named Natasha. This conversation led Natasha to tears after Dr. Lassiter asked her how she was doing, and it was this moment ...

Race Talk: Why is it Lacking?

Marissa Steiner — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 20:15:13 +0000

Our education system and schooling curriculum lacks transparent information regarding the country’s racial history and lacks the general knowledge of how to have race talk. Some teachers, who should be educating and pushing the barrier, still frequently ignore race talk or are visibly uncomfortable when racism is discussed. These classroom dynamics are crucial, and teachers and educators set the tone. Teachers need to be able to preach inclusivity, create a positive and productive classroom dynamic, ...

Black Children At Risk

Madeleine Kemo — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 19:11:32 +0000

Children of color are at a high risk of being negatively impacted by implicit prejudices and biases. The way that people manifest their prejudiced beliefs can be dangerous to children’s ability to learn and be successful outside of the classroom. In a study done by Goff et al. (2014), children of color were much more likely to be perceived as older than they actually were. Young boys of color are then treated as older when ...

A Conversation With a Cop

Madeleine Kemo — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 16:01:48 +0000

I recently met a police officer two years older than me. I started talking to him and having friendly conversation before learning that he was a cop. Naturally, upon finding out about his career, I asked him his thoughts on the current Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality. His response was “Yea, it’s a shame that it was a few bad cops. I work with hispanic people and stuff. I’m definitely not racist.” This ...

Am I the Stereotype?

Tania Jaramillo — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 15:38:50 +0000

What is a stereotype? Social psychology defines a stereotype as “any thought widely adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of behaving intended to represent the entire group of those individuals or behaviors as a whole.” Stereotypes are generalizations made about people and the groups in which those people belong to based on their appearances and behaviors. Do you know of any stereotypes made about you? Your skin color? Your religion? Your ethnicity? ...

White History Isn’t History

Adebisi Adetoye — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 15:42:54 +0000

This past summer I watched Hamilton the musical for the first time. I was in awe of the Black and Brown people playing our founding fathers and the history that the show made, but I was also aware of its historical inaccuracies. This was the thought that was running through my head as I listened to the podcast for the 1619 Project. I am not a historian, but I’ve always prided myself in trying to ...

The Acts of Exclusion in Greek Life

Marissa Steiner — Sun, 18 Oct 2020 14:41:10 +0000

Greek life has been under a microscopic eye, especially this summer and fall. Sorority Instagram pages are flooded with pictures of members and captions saying, “I found my girl gang!” What about everything that’s going on in the world? The protests, the murders, the systemic racism absolutely has to be acknowledged. We have to acknowledge that Greek life as a whole is predominantly white. I think many people have a fear of joining Greek life ...

You Can’t Ignore Your Whiteness

NicoleM — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 18:19:47 +0000

We have to discuss white fragility. Psychologist Robin DiAngelo defines white fragility as: “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation.” Whiteness is something that we continue to allow people and especially white people to avoid and it must ...

Ever heard of Afrocentric Psychology?

Sydney Crispano — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 17:40:05 +0000

Throughout the time as an undergraduate psychology major, students are taught about this idea of Psychology and all of the findings that psychologists have gathered since psychology’s start. What is hidden from these students is the fact that what they are learning is only applicable to one subset of the population of the world. In fact, they may not learn a single thing about other populations. This fact is a blaring one. There are entirely ...

Do Racists Literally Just Have to Die Off?

Sydney Crispano — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 17:03:57 +0000

I find myself always being the one asking the loaded questions about racism. I always want answers to the big questions and it’s something that doesn’t really have a straightforward answer. For so long, before I decided to educate myself, the questions I would ask would be about how to end racism. Because there was no clear cut answer, I just figured there was no way to end racism because there were too many racists ...

Teachers Still Need to Be Taught

KarlyM — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 15:09:29 +0000

When it comes to the school system, there are many white teachers who stray away from talking about race in the classroom. The dynamics of the classroom matter so much more than people may originally anticipate. Students need to feel comfortable when it comes to someone who is instructing them. Not only are teachers someone that students see often, but they are available to talk to about other topics if needed. When it comes to ...

White “Suffering”

Isabel Kaufman — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 14:54:48 +0000

The Dangerous Belief that White People are Under Attack (2017), by Dr. Clara Wilkins, reminds me of a conversation that I had with my extended family a few years ago. My aunt, (and old, white, wealthy, surprisingly liberal woman) was talking about how her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania was using affirmative action when looking at applications. My aunt was expressing her frustration about how white students are now being “discriminated against” because students ...

Psychology’s in Trouble

KarlyM — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:58:07 +0000

Psychology has a character flaw that it does want to acknowledge or do anything about. When it comes to psychology research, majority of the population does not include people of minority groups. Psychology is very aware of this issue due to most studies focusing on a particularly small population. Another thing is that due to the lack of diversity in these psychological studies, certain populations are technically not able to be looked at because statistically ...

Lying to the Future

Isabel Kaufman — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:50:29 +0000

In class, we discussed the topic of slavery and how it is taught to young children. The discussion blew me away. I realized during this conversation that what I had learned growing up regarding slavery was glossed over. In the article read in class, which was included in the New York Times’ 1619 Project, I learned: “There is no consensus on the curriculum around slavery, no uniform recommendation to explain an institution that was debated ...

What White People Don’t Get

Isabel Kaufman — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 16:45:08 +0000

This week I listened to a Politically Re-Active podcast entitled: Shaun King on Controversy, Color, and Kaepernick. Shaun King is a civil rights activist who mainly uses social media to discuss race relations. During the podcast, the hosts of the podcasts ask King about whether he thinks there is hope for improvement regarding police brutality in America. King tells them he is hopeful, but unfortunately racism in America is getting worse. King states how during ...

Diversity Conversation(s)

hopp — Mon, 13 May 2019 16:36:32 +0000

Race is not talked about at Muhlenberg. One of the programs at Muhlenberg, and honestly the only program, that is mandatory for students to increase awareness about diversity is the Sedehi Diversity Project (a documentary theater project created by students, culminating in a performance for incoming First Years at orientation). I applaud all those involved in the emotional and extremely valuable play that is intended to promote not only race talks, but conversation about all ...

Staying Afloat on “Lake Diversity”

Brianna Howland — Thu, 09 May 2019 20:18:21 +0000

On April 13, many students of color and allies joined together in front of Muhlenberg College’s Life Sports Center to silently protest racism on campus. While all the rules were followed and the protest was a success, it is certainly not the last time the campus will hear about the Student Action Group. As mentioned in the “Muhlenberg Weekly,” “…the persistence of incidents like these has made it increasingly clear that this is in fact ...

Who knew there was a Racial Cultural Identity Development Model?

Lucy Sedlis — Thu, 09 May 2019 20:03:52 +0000

All stage of schooling can never properly prepare a student of color (SOC) to enter a predominantly white institution (PWI). There are no tricks or short cuts when it comes to adapting in a PWI as a SOC. However, through further research beyond what was taught during this course I have encountered a model known as Racial Cultural Identity Development model (RCID), that was proposed by Atkinson, Morten, and Sue (1979). A person’s cultural identity ...

Finding a Place to Belong

Michael Cannon — Wed, 08 May 2019 13:36:57 +0000

On college campuses, much like any other place, there is a drive to feel as though one belongs. However, for some this may be harder than others. Specifically, on primarily white campuses, students of color may not feel as though there is a place for them. However, research done on this population suggests that students often find solace in what are known as “counter-spaces.” These students used counter-spaces to help them navigate the institution which ...

Being a Black Academic in America

breebooth — Mon, 06 May 2019 15:48:42 +0000

What does it mean to be hypervisible and hyper-invisible at the same time? A recent article in The Chronicle Review details the lives and narratives of several black academics and scholars in America. The article and the outpouring of stories comes after a scandal was revealed involving rich white people bribing many people to get their children accepted into rich white institutions in the country. In an attempt to make space for the voices usually ...

Thriving or Surviving: A Discussion on Black Student Success in PWIs

Shaynie Hayward — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 19:23:44 +0000

Black students in predominantly white institutions are, often, discussed in literature as objects of struggle amongst their white counterparts. Their experiences are reduced to micro-aggressions, theories of assimilation, and conflict avoidance, just to name a few. While all of these elements play a role in the minority experience within a PWI, they should not be the only lenses through which black students’ narratives are analyzed. Many black students within predominantly white institutions are excelling on ...

Just an Average Model Minority

Lucy Sedlis — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 20:33:31 +0000

The model minority emphasizes that Asian Americans are more academically successful than other racial groups. This is dependent on their hard work and individual effort (Atkin et al., 2018). We tend to see Asians being good at math and science, over all excelling academically. Due to the racial discrimination associated with Asian/Asian American, those who identify as Asian/Asian America are much more susceptible to negative health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, etc (Narra ...

Hidden Labour: The Role of Faculty of Color at PWI’s

Jourdan Lane — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 12:50:27 +0000

Representation Matters, even on college campuses! Students of color (SOC) often seek solace within the four walls of their professor’s (of color) offices. Those spaces quickly become safe spaces for these students, as they feel confident in the fact that their feelings will be heard, understood and respected by members of staff who can personally relate to their experiences. While in one of these safe spaces provided by a Faculty of Color (FOC) on Muhlenberg’s ...

Multiracial Marginalization

Michael Cannon — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 17:53:54 +0000

In recent years, the number of multiracial students as increased drastically. Since the year 2000, the number of people who identify as mixed-race has grown by 35 percent, according the Census Bureau (Saulny, 2011). However, on many college campuses, it seems as though their existence is quite unknown. There are multicultural affinity groups for those identify as Black, Asian, and Latina. It has been shown in research that a fairly common theme to pop-up for ...

Minority Spotlights the Minority Spotlight

Maia Brint — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 17:12:21 +0000

The minority spotlight effect is something that might seem minute and insignificant in the moment, but it can be frustrating for students of color and internalized differently by them as well. I heard about an incident in a class with a faculty member of color where the class consistently tackled social issues, broaching topics including gender, race, and sexuality. The teacher would consistently look to students of color in hopes that they would chime in ...

So What is Affirmative Action?

Carli Weimer — Tue, 01 May 2018 11:34:46 +0000

Affirmative action was created as an effort to improve employment and educational opportunities for members of minority groups, and it was an outcome of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. President Kennedy was the first to use the term in an Executive Order that directed government contractors to take “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin”. In 1965, ...

Lens of Awareness: Racism Outside of the Classroom

Kyle Watkins — Tue, 01 May 2018 11:31:10 +0000

Something that comes with education, of any kind, is the tendency to find ways to apply it and allow it to inform the way we now view the world. These new understandings and connections are the drive that makes us eternal students. What is complex, especially in the vital and often difficult path of education that unpacks and explains the functions of racism and oppression in a White Supremacist system, is allowing this to begin ...

Theta Tau Expulsion Causing Campus Convulsion

Lily Josephs — Tue, 01 May 2018 10:54:04 +0000

On April 18th, Syracuse University decided to permanently expel the Theta Tau fraternity after footage emerged of its members participating in a racist and anti-Semitic skit. The Chancellor of the University, Kent Syverud, emailed a statement to students, faculty, and staff affirming that the video included, “words and behaviors that are extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities”. He continued: “The conduct is deeply harmful and contrary to the values and ...

Stereotype Threat, Not just a Threat

Ziming Han — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:40:18 +0000

Think about the word “stereotype”, what first come up to your mind? For many people they may recall some stuff like “blacks have lower intelligence”, “females are not good at math” and so on. It’s not a surprise to find many stereotypes are related to race and gender, which are also major sources of lots of social contradictions. People know that stereotype sometimes can cause intense emotional reaction and defensive behaviors, but their understanding of ...

Affirmative Action… Not Gaining Traction

Lily Josephs — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 17:26:31 +0000

On April 6th, 2018, The U.S. Justice Department announced that it might formally enter a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of discriminating against Asian American applicants as the agency probes its admissions policies for potential civil rights violations. On April 10th, the case moved a step further as a U.S. district judge proposed a tentative October trial date and suggested ground rules for admissions records to be made public in upcoming months. Harvard denies the allegations ...

Aren’t Sports Supposed to be Fun?

Carli Weimer — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 16:37:11 +0000

Earlier this year an Ohio basketball team was banished from their recreational league for wearing racist jerseys during a game. The members of both basketball teams were high school students from West Clermont High School and Kings High, but they were not affiliated with the school districts other than renting the space hand having players that were students. The members of one of the basketball teams showed up for the game wearing jerseys that read ...

“The history of America is too big for one building.”

Julia Beatley — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 16:26:27 +0000

“The history of America is too big for one building.” – Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Recently, I had a conversation about the variety of museums in my hometown of Capitol Hill and about the wonderful exhibits surrounding the Washington Mall. The person I spoke with had recently visited, they shared, and they loved it. But they didn’t visit the African American museum because they didn’t like ...

Civil What?

Benjamin Starr — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:56:25 +0000

Our high schools just aren’t pulling their weight when it comes to teaching about the Civil War and the role of slavery in shaping American society. A report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center on February 1st found that only 8 percent of high school seniors can identify slavery as the central cause of the Civil War. Not only that, but two-thirds of high school seniors were unaware that it took a constitutional amendment ...

Mythbusters: Christopher Columbus

Tovia Marinstein — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:14:48 +0000

“History is written by the victors,” Winston Churchill said. Another way to understand this power to define reality is through the construction of master narratives. A master narrative is majority-constructed script that specifies and controls how social processes are contextualized. An example of a master narrative that is perpetuated by our education system is one about the “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus. When the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria landed on Plymouth ...

Politics with Kids

G_Wolfe — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 03:18:51 +0000

Special Guest Post by Ginelle Wolfe ’16 I knew work would be tough the day after the election because I work with kids at an elementary school. Each teacher I talked to said they were not going to discuss the election, as the assumption is that most students would not even understand what happened. While I understand that approach, my situation is a little bit different. I teach English Language Development classes, so the majority ...

Offensive Graffiti at Our College

jgainsboro — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:31:08 +0000

I learned last week that we had an incident at our school with someone writing an anti-Semitic and sexist comment in one of our dorms. I had a conversation with the Dean of Student Life about it. The RA and Head Resident Assistant were apparently alerted that the comment that was written on or near the door of a student. The comment was taken down within four to five hours after being written. Campus Safety has been unable ...

It’s Just Business

Jenna Lehmann — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 22:21:23 +0000

David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, narrowly reached the 5% voting support he needed to be considered a legitimate candidate for Senator of Louisiana. Although according to his numbers he doesn’t actually stand a chance in winning the seat, it’s horrifying to realize that a substantial number of people are voting for him. What’s even more disturbing is that he was now allowed to participate in the November 2nd debate which was ...

Whiteness as Social Capital

Cassandra Baker — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 22:12:41 +0000

Recently I was listening to an episode of the podcast About Race, a podcast where 3 hosts discuss current race issues in an open way. One of the hosts mentioned that black assimilation to white culture as a solution to race disparity is problematic. They looked at a specific study that showed that black people who moved to white middle-class neighborhoods before they were twelve had a “compound interest of awesomeness” where they were more ...

Segregated Housing in 2016

Jessica Sperber — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 15:59:28 +0000

My first interaction with the concept of segregated housing came in my freshman year from a friend of color on campus. They confided to me once, while discussing the topic of race, “Sometimes I wish there was housing just for the students of color…it’d be so nice to just have a place where you could chill with your people.” I was pretty taken aback with this concept, as the idea of outright segregation was something ...

Directorial Racial Choices and their Implications

jgainsboro — Sun, 30 Oct 2016 15:07:32 +0000

I grew up in a mostly-white suburban town. However, I was a part of the musical Once On This Island multiple times. The premise of this musical is that there is a peasant girl (who was traditionally played by a black, female actor) who falls in love with a rich man (traditionally played by a white, male actor). The entire show centers around how these two very different worlds are not allowed to associate and talk to ...

Education: How We Learn to Not Question

Becky Goodman — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:23:59 +0000

Although I come from a privileged background and went to a “good school”, what I really learned by entering college is how to un-learn my past teachings. Even the myth of meritocracy that provides a foundation for our mandatory history classes in the primary and secondary curriculum is a form of mis-education. The mis-education of all people feeds into the existing system of white supremacy because it does not provide the skills or critical thinking ...

Implicit Racism: A Harmful Theory?

Jennie Colabatistto — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 14:07:20 +0000

The other day, I had a very interesting conversation with a student of color, who is a friend of mine about systems of oppression, specifically racism. For anonymity sake, we will call the student Mike. I was telling Mike about my Contemporary Racism class that I am currently taking and was surprised by his reaction to some of the concepts we are learning about. He seemed to have particular discontent with the concept of implicit ...

Complacence in the Classroom

Steven Feldman — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 13:13:44 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my own racism. In class discussions of explicit versus implicit racism, I realized that although I am not an overt racist, I do (like many other White people in today’s society) exhibit implicitly racist tendencies. Over my education both in previous courses and this class of Contemporary Racism, I have become increasingly more aware of these tendencies and am actively making every effort to combat them. For example, ...

The Road to Racism is Paved with Good Intentions

jsykgrl — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 13:07:23 +0000

Recently, a friend of mine introduced me to the Comedy Central web series “Drunk History.” The host of the show conducts a boozy interview about a specific topic based on U.S. history—primarily unconventional stories—that are then retold with famous people. Given the fact that the interviewer and interviewee are at various levels of intoxication throughout the conversation, I was surprised to find how factual the events truly are. Specifically fascinating is the Harriet Tubman story, ...

The “Bad Kid”

Brendan — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:21:03 +0000

I went to the same public school system for first through eighth grade. My town was not that large, so the size of my grade never exceeded 70 people. Aside from a few students who moved either to our town or out of it, the kids who were in my class stayed relatively the same each year. The reason I’m writing about this is that it recently occurred to me over these eight years, there ...

Jennifer Eberhardt – MacArthur Fellow

Connie — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 14:05:34 +0000

Congratulations to Jennifer Eberhardt! http://www.macfound.org/fellows/913/

Does Black History Matter

Ave.MariaLewis — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 16:41:22 +0000

Originally posted February 24, 2014 While stumbling around the internet this week I came across two articles that made me stop and think, this can’t be real. http://jezebel.com/last-night-on-jeopardy-no-one-wanted-to-answer-qs-about-1525439303 The first one that I came across was about Jeopardy, which on the night of 02/17, had a category called “African-American History.” The panelist were all white college students and they avoided the topic to the best of their ability. Reading the comments under the article, ...

Institutional Racism on college campuses: I, too, am Harvard

Ave.MariaLewis — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 02:09:47 +0000

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/21-black-harvard-students-share-their-experiences-through-a The article above was introduced to me recently by one of my friends. While I was going to write about something different this week, this article captured me. Entitled “I, too, am Harvard” you see a preview of a photo project from 21 students of color who attend Harvard university. Each is holding a black dry erase board which dons a common phrase that they often hear and has in some way effected ...

Color-Blind Education

rachelbrookland — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 19:30:50 +0000

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about color-blind ideology and how it affects our school systems. It is interesting to think about the fact that some educators endorse this color-blind ideology and can not see the potential negative effects it has on children. When I think back to my experience as a child, I try to remember how my elementary schools teachers approached students of color. Unfortunately, it is not something that I can ...

Jane Elliot – Your Thoughts?

EmilyBlakeslee — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:05:35 +0000

Here is the link to Jane Elliot conducting one of her Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes prejudice education workshops. Do you think Jane Elliot went too far, or did she teach the students a valuable lesson using this method? (http://www.upworthy.com/i-never-thought-id-want-to-high-five-a-teacher-for-yelling-at-a-student-but-i-was-wrong)

Low Prejudice/High Prejudice

EmilyBlakeslee — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 02:16:50 +0000

Something about our last conversation in contemporary racism was bothering me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I knew it had something to do with how we had discussed the low prejudice versus high prejudice participants in Hodson, et al (2002). We discussed how “high prejudiced” participants from a sample of college students really represents the “low prejudiced” end of the general American population. We discussed that this is due to college students ...

Aversive Racism In The Schools

Lauren B. — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 18:58:26 +0000

As part of my research in the Education department, I am presenting on a panel about race and education. The goal of the panel is to illustrate the different school districts in the area and the relationship between the prominent race in each school, the average socioeconomic status of students, and overall “success” of the school according to the state. The idea is to start a conversation about why the schools that are predominately African ...

Life Lessons in Youth Media

jena.verlin — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 19:09:42 +0000

It is always interesting to me to see how psychological theories play out in real life, as well as in the media. I am curious as to whether these occurances are purely mapping an academic concept onto a convenient pop culture item or whether the creators of the content are intentionally trying to teach lessons in an attempt to build a more tolerant future. One such example came to mind, an episode of The Fairly ...

Racial Discrimination; Not a Thing of the Past

rachelbrookland — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:14:36 +0000

“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, ...

Privilege Role Play

nashkrod — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:01:57 +0000

While browsing the internet I came across Jane Elliott’s Brown Eye-Blue Eye experiment. For those of you who are not aware of what it is, Jane Elliott separated people into two groups based on their eye color (brown eye or blue eye) and created an environment where one group (the blue eye group) was discriminated against. The brown eye group was seated in a room and Elliott instructed them on ways to treat the blue ...

College denies diversity?

AbbeyRab — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:39:18 +0000

In this blog post I want to bring up something that actually discovered earlier today. A friend of mine transferred from Muhlenberg to Smith College, an all girls college in Massachusetts a couple years ago. When speaking with her today, she told me about a Smith alum, Anne Spurzem, who posted a letter about how adding diversity to Smith College is virtually ruining it. Here are two links that discuss (and present) the letter to ...

Contact Theory, Controlled Thought, and the Fundamental Attribution Error

Daniel.Greenfield90 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:57:46 +0000

In our class focused on aversive racism, we examined an article by Patricia G. Devine. Devine’s article consisted of three related studies which focused on the mental processes of both high-prejudice and low-prejudice individuals. Devine’s first study found that high and low prejudice individuals are aware of the same stereotypes. Devine’s second study looked below the surface of consciousness, and found that when people, whether they are high or low prejudice are not aware that ...

The Challenge of Educating

kw237335 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:11:07 +0000

In class last week we were challenged to try to explain to a typical white male that racism does still exist and that there are still inequalities between the races. Coming into this class, I had a bit of knowledge of the concepts we would be discussing in class. I also knew that one of our goals for the class would be to learn to educate others on racism and its current existence. The only ...

How can we fix it?

AbbeyRab — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:38:07 +0000

This week in class we discussed psychological reasonings behind prejudice and racism. Through a couple readings we discovered that humans categorize others through an implicit automatic mechanism. Without even realizing that we are doing so, we are judging a person within seconds of looking at them, placing them into pre-made categories that society helped us create throughout our lives. Stereotypes form these social categories, which then become further reinforced whenever we believe that we witness ...

Sterotypes, Generalization, Prejudice and, at best, Bad Manners

Simone — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:12:29 +0000

Recently, I suffered a sprained shoulder and after a doctor’s visit, I was referred to physical therapy for help in rebuilding strength in my right shoulder. Let me say this right from the start, I am in no way, shape, or form a malingerer. So on my first visit, everything was about evaluating and trying to gather as much information about the injury determine the best treatment regimen for me. By the second visit, one ...

How can we facilitate cultural exchange on campus?

ccaraway — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:26:13 +0000

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke This quote has resonated throughout groundbreaking historical events. The majority of German citizens did not hold Hitler’s beliefs of Jewish persecution, but very few did anything to stop it. Quite recently, a toddler in China was hit by a car in a market. 18 people walked past her but did nothing to help her. The extent of her ...

Eurocentric Racism in the Classroom

Keith — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:38:16 +0000

As they so often do, our discussion in class this week reminded me of one of the most influential teacher’s that I’ve had the privilege of learning from at Muhlenberg, Dr. Charles Anderson. Our discussion of how racism directly effects the testing ability of black youth made me feel as if I was right back in introduction to African American Studies and I had to re-visit one particular article that I felt was so relevant ...

Stereotypes as a Cognitive Tool

Jordan — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 21:52:09 +0000

I found the findings of the article “Stereotypes as Energy-Saving Devices: A Peek Inside the Cognitive Toolbox” by Macrae, et. al incredibly depressing. The researchers’ studies on both implicitly and explicitly presented stereotype cues revealed that stereotypes, like any kind of schema, save cognitive energy. Rather than analyzing the different traits of a new person, we subconsciously label them as part of a group. That way, we can instead use cognition to process what they ...

Dosomething.org

Alex — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:55:41 +0000

My friend showed me the website, Dosomething.org, which is an action-based website that encourages people to learn about various issues in America and how people can affect change in those issues. Some of the issues include education, disaster response and relief, discrimination, HIV and sexuality, and other such problems. I was very interested in the area of the website dealing with discrimination and was delighted to find that it had an entire section for racial ...

Colorblind Ideology in Children

Lexie — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:55:43 +0000

On Thursday, we talked about the use of colorblind ideology in general, but what I found most interesting was the way in which it was taught to children. In the study by Apfelbaum et al. (2010), children were put into two conditions: one in which colorblind ideology was taught and one in which talking about racial differences was promoted, or the value-diversity condition. The thing that interested me the most was the way in which ...

Stereotype Threat Prevention

KristinK — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:59:19 +0000

I have found that many of the articles we read throughout this course are informative but most of them leave me with a sense of helplessness and hopelessness. I really liked the ending of the Steele article because it gave an answer or an idea on how to prevent stereotype threat. The article said that black students who attended the informal weekly rap sessions between white and black students had reduced feelings of stereotype threat ...

How Much Do I Expect of You?

Lexie — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:32:52 +0000

In class on Tuesday, we talked about the consequences of stereotype threats on certain individuals. In our society, we have many stereotypes that we use every second to help us better understand our surroundings. We use these in every setting, including school. We believe that Asians are smart, men are better at math than Women, and Black students will fall behind. Are these true? Maybe in some cases. Definitely not in all cases. But just ...

Stereotype Threat in The School System

Liz — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:23:00 +0000

When thinking about racism in general I normally do not think of the consequences it has in the school systems. After reading the Steele article I realized how influential stereotype threat can be to Black men and women. Its important to focus on this topic due to the fact that education is such a important factor in our society and and opens one up to many necessary resources to succeed in this world. These resources ...

Children and Racism

Lexie — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:09:55 +0000

http://library.adoption.com/articles/young-children-and-racism.html After discussing the Devine (1989) article in class, we had a lot to discuss. Unfortunately, in such a short period of time that we have for class, we were unable to talk about all of the implications of this study. This study had three main findings: all individuals are aware of racist stereotypes; individuals, when primed, automatically act on these stereotypes and change their behavior or perception of an individual; and when in a ...