Racism Could End Through Culturally Fair, Truthful Education
How does one solve the problem of racism and discrimination when, in the American society, people from all colors have their own varying degrees of discriminatory attitudes?
Lawyer Joseph Makhandal Champagne Jr. (video profile), former mayor of the Borough of South Toms River, New Jersey, said that an enlightened and multi-culturally fair education may be able to erase discriminatory attitudes and racism in the U.S.
“It’s the adults who can’t ‘get it.’ We have to learn to live as a human family or perish as fools. Love one another – that will lead to freedom, peace, and justice” Lawyer Joseph Makhandal Champagne Jr., former mayor of the Borough of South Toms River, New Jersey
“I don’t exactly blame white people for their supremacist attitudes and blacks being resentful,” said Champagne, when asked how to look at racial discrimination when everyone has his or her own personal biases against one another.
“This is a result of a formal education system that has historically not been fair and truthful. So yeah, the key is to have formal education that is culturally fair.”
An Ambassador for Peace with the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), Champagne, who was born in Haiti, spoke before students and alumni of the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) in February at its campus in Manhattan as part of the school’s Guest Speaker Series. He shared his own experiences of discrimination because of the color of his skin.
He emphasized that truthfulness in education can set people free from false notions of superiority and inferiority.”The truth is a casualty of the system of knowledge fed by biases,” said Champagne.
He also said that we can learn a great deal when we look at babies or young children because they just immediately play.
“It’s the adults who can’t ‘get it.’ We have to learn to live as a human family or perish as fools. Love one another – that will lead to freedom, peace, and justice,” he said in closing.