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Food for Thought: Four Children of Racism
Contributed by Mimi Tohill

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

The Wise Child: 

Who is considered wise? In 2006 6.7% of US public school children were Gifted and Talented. However the percentage of white public school children was more than double the percentage of Black public school children, which was the lowest of any race/ethnicity. Studies show that white teachers are less likely to view black students as high achieving and college bound and more likely to expect them to drop out of school.

The Wicked Child:

Who is considered wicked? Studies show that teachers of all races are more likely to punish black children than their white counterparts. In fact Black children are more likely to be viewed as angry, violent and even older by white study participants. This has very real and deadly consequences ranging from the creation of a school to prison pipeline, the physical abuse of children by school safety officers and the murder of Black children like Tamir Rice.

The Simple Child:

Who is considered simple? Black and Latino youth, particularly boys, are disproportionately classified as students with disabilities. They are especially likely to be classified with “stigmatized” learning disabilities such as emotional disturbance, mental retardation or intellectual disabilities and some other categories while they are underrepresented in categories like autism, speech and language.

The Child Who Does Not Yet Know How to Ask:

Whose voices do we listen to? Are there children who don’t know how to speak? Or are we not listening to the words they’re using? The language of our Black and Brown children is often devalued. “Speak English” is the common rejoinder to students trying to express themselves in African American Vernacular English, Spanish or other (neo)indigenous languages. But as Teachers College professor Jamila Lyiscott asks, “Who controls articulation?”

How does white supremacy shape the way we view our children? How can we work toward building a more just world where every child is seen and loved for who they are?

haggadah Section: -- Four Children
Source: JFREJ: Mixed Multitudes (2016)

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