Growing up in rural Alabama in the 1970's was as close to race and ethnicity as a person could get in my mind...I grew up in a time when I could not even go to the same school as my best friend because we were "different colors."
Today, I sit in a classroom with all different ethnic backgrounds and am mesmerized by everything I see and hear about my classmates' cultural differences and similarities. I shared with my classmates that I have raised my own children to embrace those different than them. Our book talks about children "acting white" but sometimes we find ourselves "acting whatever" because we love to experience other cultures firsthand.
I shared with my classmates that because of the period of time and location of where I grew up--I have made sure that my generation of children were taught to respect those different from them. The example I shared with them is how my own children refer to others...they don't say--who is the black guy in your office...they say, who is the man in the blue shirt?
Ethnicity is important because it helps explain where we are from--our cultures, our values, our history. Race is also a foundational term but has negative connotations because of the history we have experienced in our nation.
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