Reflective Annotated Bibliography
Elsadig Abdelaziz
ENG 1101
Page Break
Racial Discrimination and its effects on children’s of color growth and development
Since the world organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in early March this year, the United States has experienced increased rates of unemployment and economic instability. Consequently, many health measures were put into place, including restrictions on social interactions, stay-at-home orders, and childcare and school closures, which brought disastrous effects to the country. The news spread about how the impacts of the pandemic affected the communities of color, including acts of violence by the police against African Americans, which reignited the black lives matter movement in the country. If the events have profoundly affected the lives of Black American adults, how much do they affect children’s lives?
Black lives matter is a political and social movement that protests against police brutality, social injustices and racially motivated violence against the black people, among other racial discriminations. In the past few months, the movement has stepped up to voice out their grievances, fight against the systemic racism, trying to create changes and help the community to make a change concerning the matters at hand. Some of the black lives matter activists began these protests while they were young children or adolescents. An example of these activists is Nupol Kiazolu, the current president of the movement, who started the activism job as early as twelve years old. She became an activist when she witnessed the murder of a black man Trayvon Martin, and she walked to her school wearing a hoodie written “do I look like a suspect” on the back of it. After reading her story, I couldn’t stop wondering the kind of things she experienced during her childhood to decide that she wants to fight for her fellow black people. What experience do the children of the color face during their childhood? How do these experiences affect their development and growth and their future as American citizens?
McClain, Dani. We live for we: The political power of Black motherhood. Hachette UK, 2019.
The book talks about how black mothers try to help their children navigate schools where they are perceived as a threat or are made to feel unwelcome by both teachers and other children. Jessica, a mother of two children living in California, talks about how her children have been disciplined severally for petty issues in school. She says that her son has been reprimanded and even suspended for not taking off his hoodie while in class and also for raising his voice (McClain, 2019). A research recorded in the book revealed that black children are suspended or expelled from school for minor jokes such as an ill-timed joke to an adult, and due to this, they lose their learning time and end up in the school-to-prison pipeline.
Although it is evident that these black children behave like any other child at this stage, the treatment they receive from the teachers is quite different from how the white children are treated in the same school. The school staff treat them with contempt, suspend them for making noise and violating the school dressing code, a behaviour that can be exuded by any child. The book reports a large disparity between the white and black children, where the percentage of suspension, expulsion, and school dropout of children of color is higher the white children. The mothers interviewed by the researcher reveals their grievances on discriminations their children face while in school (McClain, 2019). Some enrolled their children in white suburban schools where education is better, but they had to prepare them for the discriminations that they might face.
Discrimination in school have an impact on the black children because they affect their academic performance and future careers. Frequent suspensions can make the children become taunt, drop out of school, and because the outside environment is not safe for them, they end up in the juvenile justice system. These experiences affect a child’s perception towards the white people and the society they live in. The mothers in the book claim that they find it difficult to encourage their children to be suitable or to accept a society that does not accept and acknowledge them. I chose this book as it reveals how discriminations in schools erode black children’s self-esteem, and destroys their future careers, and affects their perception towards the white society. It explains some of the reasons why black children join activism movements at a very young age to fight for their rights.
Post, Washington. “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” (2018).
The article speaks about the black children’s encounters and perceptions about the police. During the protests by the political activists, they have also lobbied to end the contracts between public schools and get them out of the schools. The activists have made it clear that the police do not make the black American children feel protected. The United States has a long history of the state-sanctioned violence against the children of color, which affected their perspectives towards them. Black children regularly experience bad encounters with the police and state-authorities like adults. For instance, Tamir, 12years old and Aiyana, seven years, were shot to death by the police for a crime best known to the police. Moreover, the case of the police violently assaulting black children is reported frequently.
For many decades, the government has imposed violence against children of color as a way to build and maintain white supremacy. To suppress the black children’s present and future attainment of their rights as citizens, the government has treated them violently such that the society does not view them as young children like whites. The article connects this brutality to black slavery in ancient’s years, where the blacks were punished harshly. While the black children were treated brutally, the white children were viewed as the right beneficiaries of the social reform; therefore, they were increasingly protected from any security threats.
The black children’s mistreatment in the justice system spurred and radicalized many social movements like black life matters. In the eyes of the white children, the police is an authoritative agency that provides safety and security when necessary, while in the eyes of the black children, police are brutal people to be feared and avoided at all cost. I think the black children’s experience with the law affects their perceptions towards them, and some of the kids hide, or they are in constant fear of being assaulted by the police. The article explains the experiences encountered by young black men and women with the authority that has led to the emergence of activism movements. As the young ones grow in an environment where their safety is not guaranteed, and where they are treated like adults, they have to act them and be strong enough to voice out their encounters.
Spears Brown, Christia, and Rebecca S. Bigler. “Children’s perceptions of discrimination: A developmental model.” Child development 76.3 (2005): 533-553.
Discrimination affects millions of children in the United States and many other countries in the world. The article examines the children’s perceptions of racial discrimination. While on an interview about family and school, one of the participants said that that he felt like they are starting all over again that year because they were having new teachers. The student says that a teacher looks at him and seems to think that since he is black, he will be staying in school for utmost three weeks. Another European student said that they could access any book they require from the library without being monitored, unlike the Mexican and black students. The latter are followed around by store managers to prevent them from stealing anything.
Consequently, many students reported to have experienced discrimination in many places such as courts, social services centres and have impacted their perception towards themselves and other people. Individually perceiving oneself to be the target of discrimination affects the children’s formation of identity, relationship with peers, educational achievements and dreams, and mental and physical health. Perceiving other people as victims of discrimination also affects the way children behave and react towards these individuals. For instance, a child is likely to get closer to the victim of racism than the discriminator.
As the article says, it is important to examine and understand children’s perception towards discrimination as it will help in helping these children to develop in a better way. It is difficult to teach a child about being passionate to everybody regardless of their color while what she/he experiences in school is different. Racial discrimination causes discomfort for children in school and schooling becomes a burden to them. Some develop adverse characters as they start discriminating others to fill the vacuum in them. Racial discrimination affects children’s experience of their childhood and development.
Trent, Maria, Danielle G. Dooley, and Jacqueline Dougé. “The impact of racism on child and adolescent health.” Pediatrics 144.2 (2019): e20191765.
One of the factors that affect children and adolescents health is racism and racial discrimination. Even though the country is making some progress towards racial equity and equality, there are still negative impacts of racism on the health and wellbeing of the children of color. The children face discrimination in institutional structures such as schools, medical institutions, and other government programs. The social environment where a child is brought up, shapes his/her development. Racism has dire impacts on who witnesses, receives or commits it. Racism is a major social determinant of health which means that it is a controller of health inequities. World health organization defines this social determinant as conditions under which humans are born, grow, live, and work.
The effects of racism can be linked to birth disparities and mental health problems in children. For instance, racial differences in the mortality of children are associated with racial discrimination that leads to stress in children and also mothers. Since many black people live in poverty due to lack of proper jobs and even education, these children lack adequate housing, and nutritious foods leading to health problems. Another aspect that affects children’s health is the juvenile criminal system. Due to racial discrimination, the children of color are treated like adults and sentenced in court like other adults and also incarcerated in adult jails. This kind of treatment caused stress in the children leading to depression, and some even hung themselves in these cells.
It is such a pity that young children of color are treated so differently from the white children in every system of the public. These discriminations degrade children’s self-esteem and identity as the United States’ citizens. I agree with the paediatrics that racism causes mental illness and other health problems. With families living under poor housing conditions where proper sanitation is a challenge, they are prone to all kinds of diseases. These families also lack appropriate employment due to discrimination, and therefore health insurance is challenging to attain. Another thing is that the medical services near these families are very low quality which is one of the causes of health problems for the children of color. I chose the article because it elaborates on the impacts of racism on children’s physical and mental health.
Conclusion
Reading the four sources of information has expanded my knowledge concerning racial discrimination and its impact on children growth and development. Although I knew that discrimination and social injustices in the United States has effects of the development of children of color, I had no idea how significant this impact was. The article that had new knowledge was the one that talked about how racial discrimination impacts the health conditions of children. Racism, especially in schools seems like just saying a few hateful words towards a person. However, those hostilities makes children withdraw from others, lose their self-esteem, and due to these stresses, children can develop a mental illness or other physical disorders. Poverty is also another aspect that affects children experience of childhood. Living in a poor environment, relating to uneducated people around the neighbourhood affects children’s social behavior and their childhood experience is quite different from the whites living in urban areas.
Juvenile criminal system injustices are other factors that cause disparities between white’s childhood experiences and children of color. Two children who have committed the same crime are treated differently because one is white while the other one is either black, Latino, or Hispanic. The whites are treated as children without full knowledge, while black children as adults and they have to face the court of law as an adult. Police forces protect the white children against any insecurities, while the blacks are treated with contempt and suspicion. All these unequal treatments shape the black’s childhood experience affecting their future. With these horrible childhood experiences, the youth are compelled towards joining activism activities and movements where they can stand together and voice out their grievances and fight for their rights. It is through these movements that the children and youth of color can create awareness to the community that their lives matters, their childhood experiences matters and their future goals matters. Therefore, I would say that these movements should press until they bring a change to their country.
Unit 2 bibliography
1)A developmental model.” Child development 76.3 (2005): 533-553.
2)McClain, Dani. We live for we: The political power of Black motherhood. Hachette UK, 2019.
3)Post, Washington. “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” (2018).
4)Spears Brown, Christia, and Rebecca S. Bigler. “Children’s perceptions of discrimination:
5)Trent, Maria, Danielle G. Dooley, and Jacqueline Dougé. “The impact of racism on child and adolescent health.” Pediatrics 144.2 (2019): e20191765.
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