Healing the Racial Divide

Some might say that Barack Obama has not been one of the best presidents. If a parent of a child going to school is aware of this parent's view, what is to stop them from thinking it is because of his race? Children are usually not aware of the details of politics, or various policies that are being put into place. They create judgments on what they observe. It could be easily mistaken that in the eyes of the child, the parent does not like how they look, how they speak, how they dress. These are the typical judgments that cause bullying, so why would they not apply that now?  "No one man's appointment will end all racial tension. Nor will it totally eradicate the residual bitterness inherent in a society where such atrocities as slavery and Jim Crow lie only a few miles behind us." This may be true, but as teachers, we are teaching a whole new generation. We can help them see that it does not matter what is on the outside, but that it is on the inside that truly counts. 

Will a Black President Really Heal the Racial Divide?
 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1857017,00.html#ixzz1aY45yj9h

"No one man's appointment will end all racial tension. Nor will it totally eradicate the residual bitterness inherent in a society where such atrocities as slavery and Jim Crow lie only a few miles behind us. In fact, the economic crisis facing the country demands that the Obama Administration move past the pettiness of race matters with the haste of a paramedic driving an ambulance. Tomorrow we will not care about the color of the driver nor the pronunciation of his name. Instead, our hope is in his ability to provide the medicine this nation desperately needs to rise again."