Publisher: Lourdes Herard
Racial Discrimination Affects Colored Adolescents. DRAFT!
It is hard to hear that a problem that was discovered centuries ago is still a problem in today’s world. Racial discrimination has affected many people negatively and it still continues to be one of our biggest problems. Racial discrimination, basically treating someone irrationally just because of their race, color, or personal characteristics people may or may not be able to control. Racial discrimination is a traumatizing situation for adolescents especially if they understand what the actual problem is. It may have a lot of negative impacts to a child’s life. Today is going to be about how racial discrimination affects African- American adolescents.
First, there are many ways that racial discrimination can affects colored children. One way is that it can affect their behavior inside and outside of school. According to Gale, Adrian and Dorsey Marquitta they have shown us that researchers think that many of the affects are the same in and out of school. “In particular, we investigated whether there were differences in the link between racial discrimination within school, and racial discrimination outside of school, and adolescents’ academic and non-academic outcomes… our results did not reveal differences in the associations between racial discrimination and grades or psychological well-being.” .This is a problem because in school students are supposed to feel safe and equal but they aren’t and they start to feel unwanted. Racial discrimination can cause a shift in behavior a African-Americans life because they already go through other criticism that is not needed or wanted. This situation can cause outbreak in a colored adolescents behavior because they may start to act out. It will internalize negative views of themselves due to what they hear and what is coming towards them and they will start to act upon that.
Another way racial discrimination can affect African-American adolescents is that is can cause them to have a decrease in there education. It makes them feel like they have limitations on what they are capable of doing what they truly want. According to Nadra Kareem Nittle she stated that “They’re disciplined more harshly, less likely to be identified as gifted, or to have access to quality teachers, to name but a few examples.” This text shows that Black students are more likely to get in trouble two times worse than a white student would. Also that most people or schools give African- Americans the bare minimum for school access. while others have higher chances. In cases like these, they’re reasons why colored children act out .The quality of education that students get is an important factor. Colored children get less quality of education then others simply because they have less access. “White people begin to perceive Black boys as threatening at just 5 years old, associating them with adjectives such as “violent,” “dangerous,” “hostile,” and “aggressive.” The people who are supposed to be our teachers and leaders are stereotyping young black men without getting to know them. This is why black boys/men are more likely to act out because they see the difference in how most people treat them and how they treat white boys/men and they end up confused on why they are disciplined worse than someone else who did that exact same thing. “Because when children of color have teachers of color, the chances are higher that they will be identified as gifted. This indicates that White teachers largely overlook giftedness in Black and brown children.” Most of the time when black students have someone who shares something in common, it can boost up their motivation to want to learn and excel in school because their teacher might give them more opportunities and chances to gain knowledge and success.
Additionally, racial discrimination and racism can most definitely affect a colored adolescents mental and physical health due to just that one reason. Claire McCarthy’s reason of this thinking is because “ Children raised in African American, Hispanic, and American Indian populations are more likely to live in homes with higher unemployment and lower incomes than white children.” This explains that children who are African- American or other races are less likely to have the health care needed than white children. They are more likely to live in poverty which comes with, limited jobs, unhealthy nutrition, broken household, and more. “Racism and its effects can lead to chronic stress for children. And chronic stress leads to actual changes in hormones that cause inflammation in the body, a marker of chronic disease. Stress that a mother experiences during pregnancy can affect children even before they are born.” This shows that racism towards a mother can cause stress leading to transfer to an unborn baby which will cause lots of problems while the baby is growing up. It will affect their growth and development.
There are a lot of problems when it comes to colored adolescents and teens facing racial discrimination. Racial discrimination can lead young children into substance use. Gibbons, Frederick X, Paul E Etcheverry, Michelle L Stock, Meg Gerrard, Chih-Yuan Weng, Marc Kiviniemi, and Ross E O’Hara did research on how substance use and racial discrimination link together. “ As in the survey study, discrimination was associated with more drug willingness and that relation was again mediated by anger and moderated by supportive parenting.” This shows that there is a connection between substance use and racial discrimination but it doesn’t only stop there. Substance use is a way for colored adolescents to cover up the impact and pain that they are getting. Researchers G. Alan Marlatt and Katie Witkiewitz said that “the additional stress that African American youth experience as a result of their racial and ethnic minority status may place them at increased risk for substance use and substance use disorders.” This can affect an adolescents youth and cause negative change in their life.
Further more, racial discrimination doesn’t only occur in school, it happens everywhere from walking home to going to the store. There are many colored adolescents who have been brought to the ground from police simply because they fit the description or they just think they’re up to something that is no good. According to Nicole Wetsman “These sorts of videos, and the trauma they can cause, can make these kids feel worse about their racial identity, and make them internalize some of that dehumanization.” These actions are what can traumatize these children and make them fear their own skin color. Why is it that brown skinned children dread their skin color. Police brutality is something that is all over social media these days because so many brown skinned people are dying due to the unnecessary actions most police choose. On social children are able to see not only adults but other children on how they are treated and the reasons why they get disrespected like this.
