Is your kids racist???

             Discrimination has been a big problem from the beginning and still affecting lives all over the world. Back in time discrimination was thought to be an adult problem. But now it has become a common problem even among kids. We see or hear many news today about different incidents happening in schools and colleges (kids have beginning to develop a sense of discrimination and hate each other on the base of color) . The concept of discrimination is deep rooted and it is passed on to generation after generation like it is a part of our DNA. There are many campaigns against discrimination but none of them seems to be working as it is supposed to be.             

              Since i had an assignment to write an essay so i also searched about this issue of perceiving discrimination among kids and wrote about it. I saw a picture which was was basically a front page of magazine, published in Sep 14,2009. The most interesting thing was the use of an image. The publisher used a picture of white innocent baby with a big heading says; Is your kid racist? The picture of a baby and his innocence does effect the reader right away and make him/her realize that this is something serious. Although everyone oppose the idea of discrimination yet it is influencing countless lives day by day.The authors Christina Spear Brown and Rebecca S. Bigler of the scholarly article Children’s perception of Discrimination also talk about kids learning racism, how they perceive discrimination, and different forms of discrimination. They focus on how kids perceive discrimination, and the factors that boost their perception of discrimination. Brown and Bigler have tried to pinpoint the issue of kids being treated unfairly and its severity. There are many factors like target of discrimination, availability of a comparison, relevance to stereotype, social support, knowledge of discrimination, group attitudes, etc. that enhance the perception of discrimination. They think only a few people realize that kids do perceive discrimination (mostly people do not even notice) and it does affect their behavior.

                We all know that kids learn everything while they grow up. So we can imagine how these little kids with no sense of this world learn about discrimination and to hate each other. Kristina R. Olson also wrote an article regarding to this issue called Are kids racist?  She said that kids learn everything and they even notice unusual behaviors and respond to them accordingly. She says, “Children are not blind to race. Instead like all of us, they notice differences [….] some people have darker skin or lighter skin or curlier or straight hair than others. What’s more they notice that these features of people’s faces, hair, and their bodies seems to mean something […]” (Olson).  So one big factor on child's behavior can be parenting. Even if they do not do anything intentionally but still kids can learn from their behavior. so there are many factors which enhance the discrimination factor. Eric Anthony Grollman in his article Multiple forms of discrimination among adolescents and kids adults also talks about perceiving discrimination among young adults and how it affects their health. Author also mentions how discrimination causes depression and other health issues, which eventually become a serious problem later on. In their article Brown and Bigler have shown statistical data as well to make people realize that kids perceive discrimination in Schools, colleges, in community etc. they perceive discrimination in different forms.
                    There are many campaigns against discrimination going on at this time via t.v commercials, advertisements, posts, blogs, newspaper etc. We all need to stand against this problem so that it will not be a threat in the future and many kids would be saved. This problem is like a virus which is gonna keep spreading and affect enormous lives if did not deal with on time. So we all should think about it. Just give yourself one minute and think, Are we safe from discrimination today? and are we sure we are not the victims of discrimination or we are not racist?