For The Child
July 10, 2007

The Power of Words to Fuel Racism and Bias

June was a great month for controversy: immigration, recalled products from China and the Supreme Court's ruling that race can't be considered when assigning kids to a school. It's the racism trifecta!

Between Lou Dobbs of CNN trashing the Chinese on his show, the US Senate chickening out on passing sweeping immigration reforms-the Supreme Court's decision not to allow race to be factored into where a kid is assigned to school was like winning the lottery.

Whether or not you agreed with the proposed changes in US immigration policies, you will agree that the outcome did nothing to eliminate racism or bias. And leveling the playing field for 12 million people who contribute to our GDP without the privileges of citizenship wasn't the only thing at stake. This heated debate cemented biases against people from Mexico specifically and people of Hispanic descent generally-all by the use of two little words: Illegal and alien.

Taken independently they are harmless enough and quite descriptive. Together they are code words for people from Mexico living the United States without proper documentation.

Clearly, 'illegal alien or immigrant' is a great sound bite. Accuracy takes more time and effort. But look at the message we are sending to our kids-that one group of people could be considered illegal as if they are somehow not as good as the rest of the legal people. Can people be illegal? Aren't certain actions illegal? Illegal or legal is a reference to actions and not a state of being, right?

Here is the message kids get: bias against people from Mexico is ok, because they are bad people taking jobs away from ‘real’ Americans. There is a world of difference being bad people to doing bad things. Don't kid yourselves into thinking that your kids don't make that connection-they do. And they are waiting to see which group is next in the hot seat and there is always another group, isn't there-like the Communist Chinese, a.k.a, The People's Republic of China.

In the wake of the safety issues surrounding products from China, Lou Dobbs (CNN) went on a rant about the Communist Chinese. He couldn't hide the vitriol in his voice as he repeatedly complained about the Communist Chinese. Didn't the use of that term go out with the horse and buggy? Why did Lou Dobbs choose to put the communist back in China-a phrase that is seldom if ever used to describe the PRC in the 21st Century?

Sure, the manufacturing processes and standards of the Chinese are of great concern to us-60% of the recalled products in the US came from China. Yes, the manufactures in China are under relentless pressure to reduce manufacturing costs and lower retail prices-as demanded by US consumers-may be causing them to cut corners. But bringing out the old label of communist-which has nothing to do with the capitalist pressures-only sets the bias-clock back 40 years. Merely uttering Communist brings negatives biases and stereotypes of the Chinese people screeching back to our psyches. Any progress in the elimination of biases against Chinese people and by default other Asian has taken a giant step backwards.

What a difference a words can make.

We need to remind ourselves of that when we mutter some outdated and unreasonable statement about a group of people. Kids will pick it up faster than a newly introduced Webkinz!

Check our new blog: www.bullyeraser.blogspot.com