By Cristy Chan

Impacts of Racism towards Young Children

Do you know how racism can make an impact on young children? According to (Claire McCarthy, 2020), racism can affect young children in terms of their health such as mental health, and children’s life and development in real and fundamental ways as they grow. Therefore, people always mentioned that it is important to take a real step to protect and provide young children with a safe and peaceful environment for their child development.

Creating chronic stress for young children.

It can be truly a disease for young children when they are being treated differently as compared to others. This is because chronic stress can lead to actual changes in hormones that cause inflammation of the body known as a chronic disease.
Especially for young children who are born in a family that has a lower income or higher unemployment rate, they will be going through some situations such as lack of good nutrition, good access to health care, and good access to education. When there is still racism happens to them, they will be facing a hard time that causes an increase of risk of health problems.
In the long term, if the children are the victims of racism, they will have some bad impacts on their physical and mental health which include depression, heart disease, and diabetes.

Increase the rate of low academic performance and skipping school of young children.

This can be seen when children are being treated unequally by the teachers and friends in the preschool. According to (Pawlowski, 2020), there are certain teachers or counselors who treat minority students differently without providing them the same treatment, care, or educational services to the minority group. This has caused young children to feel that they are not good enough or smart enough to be treated equally as compared to others.
In the long run, the minority groups of children will begin to skip school or classes as they feel that there is no point for them to attend the classes when they don’t get any respect from their peers or adults. At the same time, they do not feel happy and motivated to attend any classes in the preschool. Thus, children’s academic performance will be affected as they are not motivated to learn and develop in preschool.

What can we do to help change the course of racism?

1. Take a hard look at ourselves.

It is very important to always look at ourselves and make any changes to it when we know that we are wrong. Only if we change our mindset, take stock of our beliefs and our biases, then we can spread awareness towards others regarding racism and discrimination.

2. Be brave to speak up when we see or hear racism that happens in any form.

It is crucial to empower ourselves and each other to begin the encouragement to stop people from racism. This is because when we are brave enough to speak up regarding this issue, others will get motivated to protect the others who are the victims of racism. If there’s no one who wanted to give help and support to the victims, the act will be continued and cause a greater amount of people to become the victims.

3. Work with schools to ensure every child gets the equal chance to have access to good education which is supportive for their development.

Only of the preschools have their rules towards equality in education for young children can stop any cases of racism or discrimination happening among young children.
Preschool teachers should have the awareness and understand the importance of respecting young children no matter which races, ethnicity, family background, or cultures they have.

References

Claire McCarthy, M. (2020, January 8). How racism harms children. Retrieved from Harvard Health Publishing: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-racism-harms-children-2019091417788

Pawlowski, A. (2020, July 18). Why racism can have long-term effects on children's health. Retrieved from Today all day: https://www.today.com/health/why-racism-can-have-long-term-effects-children-s-health-t186480