My answer is clearly “no”. In today’s age we live in a world where being black.. at least in America is indeed better than being white. We even have systems in place such as “affirmative action” to give people of color a extra boost in the workplace and our education, etc. This mentality is teaching students to hate one race over another instead of celebrating the difference in races. It doesn’t only promote this divide but incite racism among our education system instead of teaching subject that truly matters in life like math, english, biology, etc. Honestly the only race that receiving privilege nowadays is the black community and this privilege is recessing our community. Its making us more illiterate and conditioned to be lazy and dependent on the government.
What brought me to this conclusion?…Well I was watching an interview that was conducted by a broadcasting company known as “Good Morning Britain”. Anchors on the panel question on whether or not white privilege should be taught in schools. One of the favorite political commentator named Rattlesnake was able to dissect an greater understanding of why this victimhood mentality from the black community is encouraged by our own government. This discussion was based in the UK but it can be applied to the US.
Headteacher of Michaela Community School, Katherine Birbalsingh disagrees with the term white privilege and wants to eliminate the term completely. In fact, she feel as if teachers are not experts on the term “white privilege” and schools should be more focused on stem subjects at hand. Children shouldn’t be more tailored to their phone but performing and exceeding academically. The term “white privilege” is promoting this racial divide among our country. On the other hand, journalist Simon London believes white privilege should be taught in schools and it exists. He compares the subject of white privilege to breathing and how breathing is taught under the subject of biology whereas white privilege can be taught under sociology because it follows you wherever you go. I think this is just silly. Ideologies should be taught in school. Ideologies and personality development can grow while attending public schools but inflicting someone’s beliefs on a child is ridiculous. Our generation is failing academically, why not put our focus on hard work? The commentator of Rattlesnake TV said it best… ” race is arbitrary, it’s not based on empirical facts and its chosen to further an ideology. This topic is an emotion argument.”
Both parties bring up an interesting point that the media and these reports often discuss the issue among intersectionality’s and -isms such as racism, classism, etc. instead of dissecting the breakdown in our education system. Birbalsingh mentions that the media distracts us from the real issue. We should be asking “how can we make these schools better?”. She shares that if we disseminate these -isms, children tends to lose focus on what truly matters and that’s hard work.
In conclusion, our education system is breeding a mob of activists instead of valuing the power of hard work. Breeding activists is making us feel like we’re more oppressed when in reality that can be far from the truth. I was angry black woman, simply because I thought everyone was judging me for the complexion of my skin. Let’s be honest. If we teach this type of victim mentality, this will encourage individuals to develop insecurities and anxiety. I can fully testify that I was that individual, always searching for praise. I’m not saying that racism doesn’t exist but there’s a time and a place to discuss these issues and it shouldn’t be in the classrooms.