Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

 

As an Arabic, Muslim, American woman, I never had experienced racism based on my skin color. The racism that I experienced the most is because of my speech, language, my culture, and the stereotypes about Arabic people in general. The most hurtful experience that made me and my daughter very upset was when two children (a sister and a brother) at my daughter’s school were dressed as “Arabs” in the Halloween parade. The boy was dressed as “Arabs”, but with exaggerated accessories like big nose, dark face paint and the girl was wearing a long Abaya and covered her face with a Niqab. My daughter was so upset because every one of her friends was laughing at these Halloween dress ups and the majority of the students who know that my daughter speaks Arabic said to her: “You are Arabic too, aren’t you and your mother supposed to wear this thing over your face meaning the Niqab”. This experience was so hurtful for my daughter, because her culture, and who she is was not valued and respected. Instead this experience hurt my daughter’s feelings and made her feel excluded and different form her friends.

Niqab is a Muslim religious duty; it is part of a culture of some Arabic countries like Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and not for example Lebanon.

After this experience, my daughter started to internalize racism and she always refused to do the things that make her look different from her friends. She refused to take any Lebanese food with her to school, to wear anything that could show others that she is Arabic, and she even refused to talk with me in Arabic in front of her friends. She did this because she was scared that her friends will make fun of her and refuse to be her friend. 

Derman _ Sparks and Olsen Edwards (2010) stated “In stereotyping, images and information not only treat all members of a group as the same but also dehumanize people through exaggeration, caricature, and inaccurate overgeneralizations” (p. 49). That’s what happened with my daughter, the inaccurate overgeneralization in the costumes made her feel shy of who she is.

I learned a lot from this situation, it is not how people view us is the important, the most important is how we view ourselves. I told my daughter that she should be proud of herself no matter how others view her and to use the halloween costumes as a opportunity to tell her friends about her and  to correct any misinfromation some chidlren have about her. This situation also helped me a lot in my work. It made me pay attention to every detail when creating an anti bias learning community. It is not enough to hang posters or pictures on the wall, or to use anti bias materials like persona dolls, or reading books about people from all over the world. In anti bias environment, teachers have to make sure to use every possible situation as an opportunity to teach students about diversity and about accepting and respecting others who have different religion, culture, or family structure.

This experience made me become aware of the little things that I do in my classroom and say that may hurt others who are not like me or are from different cultures. It also helped me become more sensitive to children and families who come from diverse backgrounds. It is very important that every child would experience cultural visibility and continuity (Sparks, & Edwards, 2010), in their immediate environment as well as in all other settings.

References,

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). “Anti-bias education for young children and\ ourselves.” Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).