This is a cultural snapshot of Black and African Americans living in poverty. As I was researching them I put some pictures and statistics that I found into a video:
Here is a list of links to the articles and sites found in this video:
The Song is Hope for the Hopeless by A Fine Frenzy
As I continued my research I found a video that directly talked about the stereotypes of Black Americans and how they are viewed:
You can see from both the statistics and facts presented as well as the video on stereotypes that African America's are definitely viewed a certain way in America. They are seen differently than the cultural capital in America, there are many more that live in poverty and struggle to break the mold created for them. As I was reading and researching it really surprised me how much higher the poverty rates were for African Americans in contrast to other races. After reading all of this I felt as if Blacks and African Americans have a hard time knowing how to overcome their poverty and it has becomegenerational poverty that gets harder and harder to control. They begin to acquire negative orientation in which they believe they cannot change their situation, it is by fate that they have ended up this way and there is nothing they can do.
If the children see themselves as less than or not as good as others they could have a hard time achieving biculturalism within their life. Biculturalism is the ultimate goal for every student, even if they don't have to learn a new language, being able to function well in the classroom as well as at home is essential for the student's success in school. If the other students in the class feel that African American students are not as good or smart or anything else as they are it could really effect their potential to learn. This institutionalized racism could potentially have long lasting effects that limit their potential and abilities. If we as teachers view children in this way we limit the ability of all students of that race and culture.
As educators we can help children to break out of this mold that they have for themselves, we can help them see that it is possible to change. It starts with eliminating the deficit theory and doing our best to implement socio-cultural learning in our classrooms. It is important to build your teacher efficacy in order to truly be able to help these children. We do have the ability to change their lives and make them better but we first have to believe in ourselves and know that the ability really does lie within each one of us.
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