Education about racism and racial identity in public schools

Sociology Discussion Responses

Response to Post #

While I agree with all of your concerns, I would argue that education about racism in school is the most singularly deficient of the three issues you raised. That is simply because the only philosophy currently driving the response to racism is based on the notion that racial identity is meaningful in the positive sense. In my opinion, it is not possible to eliminate racism as long as race is promoted as being an appropriate component of personal identity. Instead of honoring all races and cultures equally, public education should promote the idea that race is both arbitrary and an artificial construct in the first place and that it is not an appropriate source of personal pride or identity.

Response to Post # 3

I was particularly interested in the issue you raised in connection with vicarious trauma suffered by social service providers. That would seem to be a tremendously important concern since every social worker whose effectiveness (or tenure length in the field) could potentially affect many program beneficiaries. More generally, establishing programs to prevent, identify, and address professional fatigue would correspond to optimal system-wide program administration. While it might be unrealistic to expect that such programs can eliminate the risk of vicarious trauma altogether, they could conceivably extend the length and improve the quality of many social work careers.

Response to Post # 4

To be perfectly honest, I would disagree that scholarly writing is an important professional skill for police officers and other law enforcement agents. Once in the field, a law enforcement professional must be able to communicate effectively in writing, but I would distinguish that skill from scholarly writing. On the other hand, I would agree that it is important for all law enforcement professionals to be familiar with the process of identifying credible scholarly information for the purpose of professional research and analyses.

Response to Post # 5

I admire your commitment but I might be concerned that your perspective might make you more susceptible to burnout that colleagues who accept the inherent futility of our effort but consider contributing to the cause to be worthwhile. In my opinion, both attitudes promote professional effectiveness but the "belief in the impossible" approach is susceptible to let down whereas the acceptance of our limitations may not be in the same way.

Response to Post # 6

I would agree with your premise that empowering others must be one of the most important approaches to improving human societies and resolving social problems. In my opinion, promoting and helping to provide public education in the poorest communities will always generate the greatest relative benefit in comparison to other measures. That is especially true because public education support also provides a vehicle for addressing other major issues, such as the problem of racism, as you mentioned. Naturally, the optimal design of educational improvements would be a combination of elements necessary for self-development and training in connection with immediate needs together with the elements essential to long-term professional development.