Discrimination against ethnicity in junior high schools Hiroki FUJITA (09/07/04) What is the most important factor for you when you look at others? Is it face, hair, dress, gender, or color of the skin? When I was a freshman, I went to Thailand. I was entirely foreign there. It is because I couldn’t speak Thai at all, in addition, face and color of the skin were also quite different. In order to make a distinction from Thais to Japanese, it is clear that if someone looked more white than others, he might be Japanese. In general, the criterion to judge the ethnicity was the color of their skin. How about in the United States? It seems to me that the ethnic origin is often considered important, because some people called African American, Asian American, or Latino. Originally, people came to Northern America from Europe, and then, they created a nation. Until now, many people have immigrated to this country. A famous actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was also one who was an immigrant. He came from Austria. In many cases, the origin could be a “good” reason for discrimination, but he wasn’t discriminated against; far from that, he became a governor. Why wasn’t he discriminated against? It was because he was from Europe. If I were a citizen of the United States, I would be called Japanese American. On the other hand, someone from European country got a citizenship, he wouldn’t be called European American. I will have more chances to be discriminated against than the people from Europe. In Terkel’s essay, Stephen Cruz seemed to accomplish the so-called American Dream, but occasionally, he was treated coldly even though he didn’t have a Mexican accent. It is obvious that he was discriminated against because of his origin. His family was from Mexico. But is that a persuasive reason to discriminate against him? In this essay, I will talk about the discrimination against ethnicity in schools. First of all, I will introduce the reality of the discrimination against ethnicity in some junior high schools in the United States. Then, I would like to reveal the causes of the discrimination. Finally, I will consider the solution to the discrimination in schools. Last week, I undertook a survey of the students at Coe. The question was: Do you think there was any discrimination against any ethnic group in your junior high school? I asked six people. Four answered “yes”; the others said “no.” Even though the survey was small, the result shows that the discrimination in the junior high school still exists in the United States. It would be a small number of the people who experienced discrimination, but regardless of the number of the people, it is a serious and great problem which is latent in the society. First interviewee went to a junior high school in Minnesota. There were about two thousand students. Almost 90 percent were white; the other 10 percent were African American. According to the interviewee, white students, including her, tried not to be racist, not to discriminate against ethnicity. But sometimes just seeing black students, white students got a little nervous, afraid, and thought of them as unpleasant. But she knew it was a prejudice, she added. She didn’t know the reason why whites felt in that way. The second consequence of the interview also concerned a junior high school in Minnesota. There are thirteen hundred students. Lots of immigrants live in that district. About 5 percent of the students are from other ethnic groups including African American. She pointed out that she didn’t know the reason, but she was scared of black students and felt something uncomfortable when she passed by black students. Sometimes white students became frightened when black students would do something harmful. Whites also criticized the minorities because of their difference. “They are Mexican, so they made stupid mistakes.” In both cases, it seemed to be a big problem for the schools. Although the African American students were not teased, it was clear that they are discriminated against because of the color of their skin. Some students said that they felt fear, discomfort, or frightened when just looking at blacks despite the fact that blacks did nothing particularly evil to whites. However, it is completely unjust. No excuses will be acceptable. Let me conclude my idea. In this essay, I talked about the discrimination against ethnicity in junior high schools. As you read, trivial discrimination still exists in some schools. Most white students felt guilty or noticed about it, however, they didn’t try to stop it. In addition, obviously these series of discrimination is based on the prejudice. Then, how can we get rid of the prejudices? One important implication for the solution of this problem is the “diversity class.” In Minnesota, a special program “diversity class” is provided for high school students. In this program, almost all the minority students who live in the city go to a designated suburban high school for four years. The purpose of this program is to get to know and understand each other deeply, and then, to overcome the prejudices against race. Four-year study could enable students to get rid of their biases. However, it seems to be difficult because this program is for high school students. They might have a prejudice against blacks already as we saw in the examples above. These biases are created at an early age. From my experience of a volunteer worker at Polk elementary school, the “diversity class” does work for young children. Students in this school are ethnically diverse originally; some are black, some are half, some are white. However, regardless of their color of the skin, they play well and fight together often as many children do. They all seemed to be good friends. Under this circumstance, they are definitely raised non-prejudicially. This is the ideal class. We can make friends and get along well with each other regardless of their ethnicity. Hence, the “diversity class” has a good effect for children. It should be started at an early age and all the elementary schools should carry it out. Finally, the prejudice against ethnicity can be reduced much easier.