VivirLatino

The Children are Keeping it Real : They Know About Racism and the Electoral System

13:27 H | Topics: Children - Race - US Presidential Race 2008

There are way too many adults in the country who would rather ignore or play pretend when it comes to the role of race in electoral politics. Children, however are not playing pretend. A study released yesterday suggests that:

Children are aware white males have monopolized the US presidency, and most attribute the trend to racial prejudice.

Wait, so children (and not just my own) get white male privilege something so many adults still refuse to acknowledge plays any role in anything? Well, not exactly.

The research team interviewed 205 children aged five to ten in 2006, a year before Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama began their historic bids for the White House. Clinton lost to Obama in the primary fight for the Democratic nomination.

The study asked the children, from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, about their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the US presidency, and specifically about similarities between presidents and the absence of female, African-American and Hispanic presidents.

A third of the children said the white male monopoly was due to "racial and gender bias," and another third believed members of the excluded groups "lacked the skills to hold the position," according to the study.

One in four participants told researchers they thought it was "illegal for women and minorities to hold the office of president."

So it's actually a mixed lesson our world is teaching children. Some see the racism and sexism (I wonder if they see how they work together), other adopt stereotypical ideas to explain what they see and experience in the world around them.

The problem is that there are very few parents and community members who speak about the very real role of the "isms" in politics and in day to day life, so we create another generation that usually falls in one of to pools, those who believe in the system and that those that fail is because of their own built in flaws and those who see the problems with the system.

If you think the children are too young or aren't paying attention. You're wrong.

Via / Raw Story

Related

• Dirty Debate Words: The I Word (Friday, Oct 03 2008)
• VP Debate : You Learn Something New Everyday cuz Apparently Bosniak is a Real Term (Friday, Oct 03 2008)