I'm Racist and I didn't even know it!

Moule, Jean. "Understanding Unconscious Bias and Unintentional Racism." Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 90, No. 05, January 2008, pp. 320-26.

This articles outlines unitnential racism, which is a type of racism of unintended racism that the subject doesn’t even know they possess. The article suggests that intrinsically all people have preferences and biasis towards certain ethnicities. The reason for this is that as humans we are programmed to quickly differentiate between friends and enemies, and skin color or ethnicity is a quick way we can group strangers.

The article further suggests that the best way to combat these unconscious biases within the school community is to vocally address them. Understanding that we all subject to have these biases within us and understanding strategies to cope with them is the best way to improve the culture of a school.

Furthermore, the article outlines a famous study conducted in the 1950’s in which a black child actually called a black doll bad and a white doll good. This indiates that the unconscious biases we have are not necessarily shaped by our race but rather by the images and unintended themes that are reinforced in the society we live in and the schools we attend. Thus it is our role as educators to make sure that we are conscious fo these biases within us and make sure we create an atmosphere that is culturally sensitive.

In my own classroom I find these messages to be very important. I am a white educator in a classroom filled of minority students. Teaching in a predominately Hawaiian and Samoan environment I need to be aware of my own biases and make sure that I don’t project them on the students. For me when a student is acting up or being a pain I need to make sure that I remember these actions are occurring because they are middle school kids and not because they are minority kids. I need to constantly be aware that I may have unintentional biases which result in my expecting less from my students because of their race, and I need to make sure that I don’t allow these unconscious thoughts to impact my teaching.