Biracial Individuals About Racial Socialization

From the study, I collected qualitative and quantitative data and I came up with a biracial socialization spectrum where I divided everything into three groups. One group is the Black parent spectrum, another group is the white parent spectrum, and the third side is the biracial socialization spectrum. I used this method to discover the biracial identity issues. From the interviews, four issues transpired in regard to biracial socialization.

• The Unwavering Biracial Identity: those who reported this category had experiences with different racial socializations from their parents. Some white mothers were very much engaged in racial socialization while some were not. Most Black mothers were very much involved to some degree. Most Black fathers were involved in the Black racial socialization while some were not, saying their children are still too young to introduce them to race issues, but are willing to engage them as they become older.
• Societal Black Labeling: this category encompassed those who are gullible to environmental influence and have had a bad experience with racism.
• Mixed Identity and Race are Not Important: In this category, the individuals mentioned that they did not engage in any racial socialization messages and that they do not discuss race within their family. This category of respondents was few in number.

From these findings, it’s important to indicate that message transmittal is not the only way in which biracial individuals identify and perceive themselves.

Establishing relationships with teachers before problems arise. The discourse on a student’s racial identity advancement is convoluted further because a teacher’s advent to influence a classroom will be embodied by his or her racial identity augmentation. Some even turn deaf ears to issues related to race and think that everyone needs to be colour blind and grapple with the situations. In this case, a paradigm shift is called for in order for teachers to handle their students efficaciously. Racial identity advancement for society is all about a paradigm shift. Demographically, racial identity advancement is connected with an individual’s age and experience as well. By understanding these nuances, and the probable perceptions and mindset, teachers can be in an exceptional tract in assisting students to maneuver their identities and explicate their mindset within the realm of their capability.

Teachers are also in a position where they can be instrumental in aiding students to advance their personality, feelings of acquiescent aptitude, and self-discipline. This occurs across the age groups right from preschool to adulthood. Therefore, the teacher’s critical examination of racial identity as well as understanding the quintessential of diversity could impact the approach they use to prompt and tackle the concerns of cultural congruity within the classrooms.

Some teachers who are white may see race issue as an unimportant element of identity that controls their extended personal image. This could build a culture of non-responsiveness leading to more pressure on biracial individuals to identify as monoracial – silence is as bad as approval.

Schools play a very important role in a child’s life. Teachers always spend more time with children than their own parents. Therefore, a great deal of attention for teachers is highly imperative. They do have a great influence on children therefore they make great stakeholders in addressing prejudice in schools. They could either make or break the best of their pupils.

School curriculum is a significant element in cultivating and stimulating critical thinking and connections. A teacher’s behaviour and attitude, plus the school curriculum, is still promoting Eurocentric perceptions in a continent that is changing very rapidly and becoming more of a melting pot than ever. In some countries like Poland, a school’s curriculum is still engrained in racist courses, for example, there is a very famous poem by Julian Tuwim that talks about a Black child called bamboo who is afraid of taking showers due to the fear of turning white. It depicts Black people as dirty, uncivilised, a mentality that subjugates Black people. Although this poem has been scratched off from school’s curriculum, some schools still use it. Children grow up being exposed to this kind of prejudice, therefore anybody associated with the black race falls under the category. In Western Europe, especially in countries that had colonies in Africa, the school curriculum is flooded with praise about how the white race contributed heavily to what the world is today, and therefore children grow up thinking that their race is superior to the rest. Educational materials are full of the history of the white race and their existence. Therefore, Africans and the People of African Descent find themselves excluded from the mainstream curriculum.

Conclusion

In every level of school life, teachers have the prospect of helping their pupils/students maneuver their self-understanding by caring and being approachable through various means. Engaging in open dialogue with students by giving them some positive stories and giving accounts of human diversity is equally significant.

For adolescents, teachers can thwart the humiliating messages that shape a student’s self-perception, decisively observe biased and stereotyped texts, and constantly opening a channel of communication with students in order to build poise among them.