Critiquing Books for Bias and Stereotypes

EDUC6357: Diversity, Development, and Learning “Start Seeing Diversity: Race/Ethnicity”

Program Transcript

NARRATOR: Bias based on race, or racism, and ethnic bias, or ethnocentrism, are any attitude, action, or institutional practice that subordinates people based on the color of their skin or on their ethnic background. Racism and ethnocentrism and are deeply interwoven. We are all affected by the racial bias in our society, whether our classrooms or communities are mostly white, racially mixed, or mostly people of color.

One teacher did not believe preschoolers in her all white group were affected by environmental bias, such as constant TV news stories linking crime to men of color. Then she showed each child a series of photographs of diverse people and asked the children to tell her about the people in the pictures. In response to this photograph, one child said, he's a robber, he has a brown face like a robber. The teacher asked, why do you think people with brown faces are robbers? He said he had seen them on TV.

This story shows the bias the children are developing whether or not they come in contact with people who are different from them. A color blind approach that does not acknowledge skin color ignores this, and also teaches children that something is wrong with the differences they do see. Children do notice skin color-- we all do. And young children are specifically being taught to notice and named the colors they see. Pretending that we don't see skin color keeps us from building pride and mutual respect, and challenging prejudicial thinking that can grow into racism.

The teacher in the story was convinced of the need to deal with the impact of racism on the white children she taught. Using positive images of men of color, the teacher asked questions like these to specifically acknowledge skin color along with other similarities and differences: can you describe the people in these pictures? How are they similar or different from you? What are the people doing in this picture? Is it like anything that happens in your family?

She also asked questions like these to help children make comparisons to the stereotypes they had encountered: how are these men with brown skin like the ones you've seen on television? How are they different?

In photo games, children collect pictures with common themes, like grown ups carrying children. As they play the games, children and teachers talk more about the pictures, asking questions like, what kind of work do you think this man does?

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We often discover new ground for anti-bias work by observing and listening to children. For example, from observation, teachers noticed that one child consistently refused to play with dolls of color. Rather than making assumptions about the reasons for this, they asked the child why she didn't want to play with the brown dolls. The child said she didn't want to play with the dolls that were dirty. The teachers created an experience to respond to this thinking. They set up a bath time for the dolls and asked what happened to the different skin colors after each doll was cleaned. After this experience, this child included brown and black dolls in her play.

We continually increase our consciousness of bias in the environment by keeping informed about things like major movie releases and analyzing their impact on children. It is next to impossible for children to escape the impact of children's media. Popular movies and videos make great baby sitters for busy parents.

Even if children don't see a particular movie, they are bombarded with biased messages from related toys, books, advertisements, and friends who do see the movie. Although we can't avoid the media, we are able to assist children in recognizing the biased messages.

In popular children's films and stories, the villain is too often black or dressed in black. For example, in the Disney version of Aladdin, as this article points out, the evil Arab, Jafar, is strongly connected to dark skin tone, the color black, and Semitic features. The good Arab, Aladdin, is connected to lighter skin tone, the color white, and European features. To address these stereotypes, this teacher began by asking children to make comparisons between themselves and several pictures of Arabs. Her goal was to help children move beyond simplistically seeing people as good or evil based on characteristics like skin color and facial features.

We constantly reevaluate the messages we give to children. During an art activity, a teacher said, don't mix all those beautiful colors together-- it'll come out all brown. Later, another child said, she won't let me play with her because I'm brown. The teacher responded by talking with the other child: saying Sade can't play because her skin is brown hurt Sade's feelings. It would hurt your feelings if she said you couldn't play because your skin is white. I can see you do have a problem: you both want to play with this game. Let's think together of a different way to solve the problem.

Discussion following that incident led teachers to rethink the remark about mixing paint. They realized they needed to describe black and brown as beautiful colors, and to make sure that black and brown materials were readily available in the classroom. Teachers also realized that not only is it important to intervene when

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hurtful incidents happen, but it's important to be proactive. We need to challenge bias we know children are likely to be exposed to rather than waiting until someone gets hurt.

This process begins with our choices about what diversity to include as we create our environment and develop curriculum. We begin by choosing materials and themes that reflect children in the class. Then we expand our focus to include people with whom the children will come in contact, and others about whom they will develop ideas and attitudes, even though they may never actually meet.

One way to develop respect for ethnic differences is by affirming the linguistic diversity represented in school and in the broader community. Here children are playing with Hebrew alphabet puzzles and dancing to songs and Haitian Creole.

MALE SPEAKER: I'm really pleased they use Creole in the classroom. Respecting my language is part of respecting me as a Haitian.

NARRATOR: After we learned Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in English and Creole, Su Khyun, a teacher intern, taught us the song in Korean. She also developed this Korean English name and photo matching game. These children made box drums after a visit from a Dominican drummer and created simple verses in Spanish to go with the drumming. We used stories, music and poetry, and Black English, and forms of English that reflect diverse geographical and ethnic backgrounds.

During a theme and communication, children learned sign language and developed respect for the many ways people can communicate. This helps to create an environment that is welcoming of all children. It also develops respect for linguistic diversity.

Where possible, field trips into diverse neighborhoods where children will hear unfamiliar languages provide teachers with more information about children's thinking. Children's reactions to what they hear and see-- for example, they talk funny-- can form the basis for new problem stories and follow up curriculum. Experiences with ethnic diversity can also be increased in the classroom through visual images. The best pictures are those that encourage children to make comparisons in which they find differences, and make connections between themselves and the people in the images through something that is familiar, like playing on swings.

Helen remembers how the images first affected her.

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FEMALE SPEAKER: In going through the whole process myself, I wouldn't have bought into it if it didn't validate who I was. Seeing pictures of black people in games was like seeing myself. It really made a difference. And the images of so many other people doing familiar things, it made me think, I do have something in common with people I thought were so different.

NARRATOR: In order to choose books and pictures for the classroom, we need to change some of our own perceptions by making comparisons between reality and the stereotypes. We use the same strategy in the classroom, comparing stereotypical images like this one, which depicts native people living in tee-pees, wearing feathers, and sitting cross-legged, with pictures like this one of contemporary native people.

As children played games using these images, the teacher gives information and ask questions such as:

MALE SPEAKER: These are Indians, or native people. How are they the same or different from what you thought Indians and native people were like?

NARRATOR: A child makes a connection to her own experience as she notices that these children are drawing with crayons. A child looking at one of the picture said,

FEMALE SPEAKER: Those are not real Indians. Real Indians wear feathers.

NARRATOR: The teachers responded by providing new information and helping children understand by making a comparison to their own lives.

MALE SPEAKER: Sometimes Indians wear feathers at important ceremonies known as pow-wows. Do you have any clothes you wear for special occasions?

NARRATOR: As the children compared the images, they learned to detect stereotypes themselves.

FEMALE SPEAKER: I'm really proud of my daughter Sade. At age five she's going through books we have at home looking for stereotypes. She wants to throw everything away. And I bought all those books with those stereotypes. I wouldn't buy the same books now. But it took me time to unlearn the biases and stereotypes I grew up with. At least Sade can learn to recognize them now instead of having to unlearn it all later.

NARRATOR: In an anti-bias approach, we are not limited to the diversity within

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our school or our country. We make choices about what we include based on what is relevant to the people in our program, and on our goal to address bias.

Children in this class saw TV stories about starvation in Africa. They thought Sade would starve, too, if she went to visit her grandparents in Nigeria. So we addressed that bias by inviting her father to come to school. He brought photographs in answered lots of questions from the adults as well as children. How will the airplane land in the jungle? Where will you get food? What's your house like? We saw pictures of the airport, supermarkets, and homes.

In doing this work, we are constantly learning new things. For example, choosing non stereotypical materials takes practice. We bought this book, which is clearly intended to develop respect for diversity. It wasn't until later that we recognized the stereotypes it contains. This drawing shows the most dramatic styles from each culture or country. What of white people from the US without tattoos, fancy jewelry, and hairdos? What of people of color from the US? They're not represented at all. What of people in other parts of the world who live in urban settings and wear jeans or suits? The differences are so overemphasized that similarities are hard to find.

We had another learning experience with this puzzle chain. We made it with pictures from Caribbean countries in an effort to make the classroom a more familiar place for Caribbean children. We realized we were perpetuating a stereotype that people's lives on the islands were all rural, when a parent said, this is a great idea-- the pictures of the small villages are nice-- but did you know there are also big cities in the islands?

New pictures, some given to us by children's families, were added to the puzzle chain.

Recognizing the existence of diverse cultural practices and diverse perspectives, and really becoming open to those perspectives, is critical to an anti-bias approach. But it is a process that takes time. Even after unlearning many stereotypes about native people, we still had much to learn, and strategies to develop for bringing new perspectives to the classroom. Because of school closings related to Columbus Day, we decided to use an idea of Bill Bigelow's from this book.

FEMALE SPEAKER: We tried a role play in which one teacher supposedly discovers another teacher's pocketbook and claims it for herself. In discussion, we made comparisons to Columbus's so-called discovery of America, and asked how the story might be told from an Indian or native perspective.

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NARRATOR: The next year, one of the children who had been involved in this experience entered first grade. When his teacher said, Columbus discovered America, Kamal raised his hand and said, I don't think you can discover a place where people are already living. The teacher angrily put him out in the hall. Kamal's mother, having participated in activities about diverse perspectives through the anti-bias approach, supported her son's thinking. She provided his teacher with new information and shared her expectations that her son would be encouraged to question information and explore ideas.

Encouraging children to experiment with diverse ways of doing the same thing also helps to build a foundation for respecting diverse perspectives. A child saw a picture of a baby being carried in a basket and said,

MALE SPEAKER: Babies don't go in baskets.

NARRATOR: Choosing from different props, and getting ideas from photographs, this child tried wrapping her doll on her back. She's learning an important lesson of anti-bias curriculum: there usually isn't just one right way.

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