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Stereotypes In Public Education

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I stutter as I attempt to begin to write this piece; I am of the most privileged groups of people on the planet. I am a Christian, caucasian male who had both parents with some formal education and am pursuing a formal education in a technical field. I never went hungry or was left wanting for most things that I did not need when I was younger. I am absolutely blessed and spoiled. With all of this in mind, I was born into a very diverse area with a very diverse culture in my public schooling. My mother taught me to love and accept all people, no matter title, rank, gender, race, or life choices. We moved often (a Naval officer in the nuclear submarine program) and eventually landed in a very white, rural, racist area of the country. Needless …show more content…
I realized quickly that, at the University of Akron, there is not a misrepresentation of different cultures on the campus, but there may be a misrepresentation of non-caucasian students in the technical fields, or the “smart” classes. I began to see my internalized racism and hated myself for it. I thought some students were lazier by the way they look or act; a stereotype that we should throw away entirely. Even attempting to remove stereotypes, I find it difficult to connect with people of different cultures - there is too great a division. The most I have been able to connect with is via my co-workers at a part-time job just South of campus, Chipotle. At that restaurant, I learned more than I ever thought I could. I learned things such as; people of color can be racist toward their own culture, believing that some members perpetuate negative stereotypes and further a ‘negative’ name. People of color deal with vastly different issues than I do, for example, the stereotyping that can sometimes be seen in law enforcement, racism in the workplace, difficulties applying for loans, not being taken seriously in professional or academic situations. Working at Chipotle has taught me about racism in the world, cultures in urban environments, and the inherent normalization of racism in

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