The Race Education We All Need

After taking “African-American History” and “Hip-Hop and the Post-Soul South” this semester and “Race and Ethnicity in American Society” last semester, I’ve begun to think a lot about what’s taught in our schools, why, and how. I think a lot about the kind of person I was before I took any of these classes and how much I would never want to be that person again. I was no naïve and not well-versed on the problems of race in our society. Whenever someone brought up the problems of race, I didn’t want anything to do with it because I didn’t know what to say. After taking these classes though, I welcome conversations about race because I think they’re necessary for people in American society and especially those at Rhodes.

It’s shocking to me that students aren’t required to take a class where race in American society is the main focus. In attending a majority white school such as Rhodes, I can guess many of its students attended majority white schools in the past and as a result have had very little exposure to other racial experiences. Rhodes needs to help and create that experience for students.

If I had graduated from this liberal arts college with the same experience and knowledge of race before taking these classes then I would be confident in saying that Rhodes had failed me. Experiences and learning environments like that are crucial in the development of young minds who will leave this school to try and make the world a better place. As cliché as it sounds, I mean every bit of that because as privileged, liberal arts students, we have a duty to know what’s happening in the world around us as we are taught by some of the most talented and knowledgeable professors across the country. To leave a place like this without the knowledge to have discussions or correct someone on race would be a shame. The sad truth is, I guarantee there are students who have left Rhodes without that experience. Rhodes must do better and it must require its students to do better. On that note, American education needs to change to encompass more of this from a younger age. I only began to understand the oppressive racial and gendered systems in our society to a full extent just this year, but if I had had even an ounce of that education beforehand, I guarantee the racism deeply imbedded inside me and most white people wouldn’t be quite so large. I feel that everyday I’m fighting the racial stereotypes that the south has instilled in me and I pride myself on being a progressive student and advocate who knows about these things. White people teach their children to be guarded from everyone who does not look like them and I am a product of that. Our education has a duty to change that because parents will not change their views, but perhaps what students learn in schools will help to change what that parent is teaching them and maybe, just maybe, begin to change the perspective of the parent. Racial tensions are running high in our country right now and if we don’t begin to do something for our future generations, then these tensions will burst into something disastrous that will be hard to repair.