“The ruling by the Constitutional Court of the
Dominican Republic depriving Dominican-born persons of Haitian descent of
their right to citizenship could have a devastating impact on thousands of
children. Without a nationality, stateless
children can be denied access to basic social protection
programmes, cannot earn education certificates or graduate, or
obtain an identity card or a passport. Without these basic protections and
opportunities, these children are more vulnerable to exploitation and
abuse".
As a result of this ruling
and a massive Haitian deportation program, racial tensions have escalated
through "rogue" military intimidation, racial profiling, public controversy,
fear, and a racially biased distribution of resources due to the new
citizenship law. The Guardian (2015), reports that while the government denies
implementing arbitrary deportation and racially motivated actions with the
claim that they are simply trying to register undocumented residents to ensure
services, darker skinned people are experiencing racial profiling, targeting,
persecution and inhumane treatment in these uncertain times. Add to that
"the fact that 80% of Dominicans are black or mulattos and that they are only deporting people without
papers" (The Guardian, 2015), puts all Dominicans, Haitians, and mixed
race people at risk of racism with or without proof of citizenship especially
in the poor, rural communities where births are not always documented with the
government. What's more is that many of the children being targeted for
deportation are Haitian refugees who fled to the Dominican Republic after the
massive earthquake that recently devastated much of Haiti; these children have already
suffered trauma, loss, poverty, and sickness, must their pride and spirits be
stripped by racism as well?
These children are at
severe risk as we know that toxic stress in children's live effects their well being
by disrupting their social, emotional, cognitive and physical development.
According to the Center on the Developing Child through Harvard
University (2015), "This kind of
prolonged activation of the stress response systems can disrupt the development
of brain architecture and other organ systems, and increase the risk for
stress-related disease and cognitive impairment, well into the adult years.
As well, hearing and absorbing disparaging messages about any aspect of
their physical appearance and racial identity is toxic to young children's
evolving self-concept and confidence" (Derman- Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 83).
While
the situation seems overwhelming for an outsider to enter, I am determined to
do what I can to help a small community deal with race relations in a new way
through the introduction of an anti-bias curriculum within the village
preschool. I will be living with a host
family and training preschool teachers for only a few short weeks, which means
I must be delicate and concise with my approach as well as open and respectful
of the local culture, and conscious of efficiently in teaching practice and
limited access to materials. I must
really think outside the box for strategies, games and activities to promote
anti-bias attitudes that are sustainable for this community as well as
overcoming a language barrier to a localized Spanish, Haitian Creole mix. Luckily, my TEFL training will come in handy
for this scenario.
Thus
my action plans include introducing a persona doll to help them engage in
conversations about same and different as well as fair and unfair as it relates
to the children’s lives; designing social/emotional games that require little
to no resources to implement and reinforce cooperation; providing multi-toned
bean bags for skin tone comparison and use in structured group activities; incorporating
families into the preschool program to promote positive race relations; as well
as to begin to cultivate a new anti-bias attitude among the preschool teachers
to help them learn how to think in anti-bias terms, understand how to react to
prejudice and injustice in the classroom, and develop their own emergent
anti-bias curriculum, peace education and supportive materials based on the
specific mixed cultural needs of the area.
I
would like to take this opportunity to seek the advice of my colleagues in this
program to share any thoughts or ideas you think might be valuable to take with
me and introduce to the village. With
limited materials to work with, I need all the creative, resourceful ideas and
action plans I can get. Any thoughts,
ideas or support you would like to offer will be greatly appreciated. So many of you have made valuable
contributions to discussions, offered wonderful insights into race relations,
and are already implementing anti-bias curriculum in your classrooms, so I
respectfully ask, “What would you do?”
In
addition, if any of you are interested in following my friend’s experience, her
blog is both inspiring, educational and printable to make a book for your own
classroom and teaching activities.
Follow Sarah Cook at:
References:
Derman-Sparks,
L., & Olsen Edwards, J., (2010), Anti-bias
Education for Young
Children and Ourselves,
NAEYC: Washington, D.C.
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/key_concepts/toxic_stress_response/
