As someone who is white and has always been white, I cannot grasp how it feels not to be white in the U.S. However, having taught in both the German and Japanese school systems for a total of three years, I do have a sense of what it is like to be a member of a minority population. In both countries, I was always aware of my status as an outsider – a perception that worked sometimes for me; and other times, against me. Perhaps that is true of non-whites in America today.
It is important to note that prejudice is definitely not exclusive to race. In both Germany and Japan, status is based mostly on social class. When I was in Germany, the lines between those divisions were clearly drawn to such a degree that highly educated individuals would be unlikely to mix with those who had achieved considerably less academically. In Japan, people whose ancestors had dealt with dead humans or animals (morticians, tanners, butchers, and so on) were kept segregated regarding opportunities in education, the professions, marriage, and community in general. Although these distinctions were not evident at first sight, everyone was aware of them and acted accordingly.
People throughout the world are quick to make judgments regarding individuals’ attractiveness, speech patterns, size, and other characteristics over which the ones being observed have no control. Race is only one factor upon which people make a judgment. Thus, it is inappropriate to accentuate one aspect of a person’s characteristics as more important any other.
The examples of racism in Critical Race Theory by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic could be applied to life in general: treatment by a clerk that indicates a lack of trust; a look of disproval from a teacher or classmate, exclusion from activities, fewer opportunities, overzealous police enforcement, and so on. To assume one is being treated at any particular moment unfavorably because of one’s race is assuming that is the only criteria upon which a person is judged and that is simply not true!
On the other hand, we do have obvious disparities among races because a larger percentage of African-Americans and Hispanics live in poor neighborhoods where crime is high and the schools rank at the bottom in achievement. That is the problem and what must be changed – not some assumption regarding race or ethnicity – which can only lead to frustration because one cannot change one’s genetic make-up or cultural background!
Bringing opportunities to minority neighborhoods and replacing bad schools with ones set up to teach the children well so they become hopeful of a good life for themselves and their families is the key. It means not letting teachers’ unions protect incompetent teachers and making sure education colleges improve their teacher training to become much, much better than it is presently.
It is a big challenge, not because it would be difficult, but because we are wasting way too much time focusing on appearances – rather than on reality.
Johanna J. Haver is a former Maricopa County Community College Board member (2015 to 2019). She is the author of Vindicated: Closing the Hispanic Achievement Gap Through English Immersion (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). She taught English learners for 19 years in the Avondale public schools and in the Phoenix Union High School District.