Racism is something that is and unfortunately always will be an issue in our World.
We try and teach our children to be inclusive and open-minded to others. The world is a scary place today and it is important to teach our children right from wrong. However, one father is essentially teaching his son to be racist.
Ekow Yankah of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University has caused outrage with an article he wrote for the New York Times, titled “Can My Children Be Friends with White People?”
He begins by trying to explain to his 4-year-old son about the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia saying “Some people hate others because they are different.” He talks about the heartbreak he feels for his son who replies “But I’m not different.”
This particular conversation is based on the idea of friendship, and how many people can you be best friends with, Yankah explains in the article.
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Yankah blames Donald Trump for the reason he will be teaching his son to be suspicious and cautious around white people. He writes, “Donald Trump’s election has made it clear that I will teach my boys the lesson generations old, one that I for the most part nearly escaped. I will teach them to be cautious, I will teach them suspicion, and I will teach them distrust. Much sooner than I thought I would, I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people.”
Defining people based on their race is racism, plain and simple. Every country in the world is made up of people of different nationalities, different races and different cultural backgrounds. People have fought for years to try and minimize racism in schools and to teach our children to be accepting of all despite the color of our skin.
He claims that Martin Luther King knew that his dream was in fact just a dream and not at all possible. He says, “The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous dream of black and white children holding hands was a dream precisely because he realized that in Alabama, conditions of dominance made real friendship between white and black people impossible.”
thesource.com
He believes history has given people of color no reason to trust white people. “As against our gauzy national hopes, I will teach my boys to have profound doubts that friendship with white people is possible.” He then goes on to blame Donald Trump for breaking bonds on all sides.
Of course, we all know that the election of Trump has been controversial, to say the least, and the President has made some unbelievable faux pas over the last year. However, he was elected based on the votes of everybody in the United States, not just “White People” and to tar every Trump voter with the same brush is just wrong.
Racism is wrong no matter where you are from or what color your skin is. I hope that one day our children and our children’s children can grow up in a world free from hate, violence, and racism, but for that to happen we need to start at how we perceive the world.
lakefrontollu.com
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