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Kerrigan Peters
Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102-017
19 October 2015
Opinions, Are They Taught?
Answer me this, do we as people form our own opinions on other races or ethnicities, or
are we taught them? Sure we have our own opinions about things, but I doubt someone has ever
taken the time to sit down, and think how they actually formed said opinions. There is always a
little extra to why someone thinks a certain way. What constructs someones thought? Is it the
media? Their peers or family? Or did they form their thoughts all by themselves? It is crazy to
think about how sometimes it is a mixture off all these things or maybe even just one. Who
knows, maybe it is something completely different.
How does one form their own opinions? Recently, Ive had some discussions about this
topic with many people to try and get their input on the subject. With that being said, my topic of
inquiry is, do we as people form our own opinions on other races and ethnicity or are we taught
them? Racism has always been a big problem in the world but how did it begin? More
importantly, how has it been maintained? Racism and discrimination against ethnicities and races
has been an epidemic in society for thousands of years. Racism is defined as hatred or
intolerance of another race or other races. Whereas discrimination is favoring or disliking a
person based on other groups and ideals. Whether it was back in the 1950s with segregation, or
the 21st century with the U.S.s discrimination against those with a Middle Eastern appearance
following September 11th, civilizations have improved and grown. But even so, we also still carry
a lot of old prejudices.
A study done by Professor Gil Diesendruck, from the Bar-Ilan Universitys Psychology
Department in Israel, tested to see if racism was innate or taught. Diesendruck believes that this
behavior begins at a young age which helped him construct his research. In his study, he plays
with children and talks with them. He explained what his study entailed in this interview.

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We told 4- and 5-year-olds a story about people who live someplace in the world and
think that dogs and cats are the same kind of thingWe asked the kids if these people
should be corrected and they said yes. Then we said that the same people also think that
Jews and Arabs are of the same kind, and here too the children thought it was a mistake
and that it was even more important to correct it. Because these are two groups that are
even more different, (qtd. in Reisfield).
It was later revealed that the children felt more of a need to correct him on dividing race than
genders or professions. In another instance he said, We showed children a drawing of an Arab
boy and we said that he likes to play a game called Jimjam (a made-up name). We also showed
them a Jewish girl, and we said she likes to play a game called Tibbits (another made-up name).
When we showed them an Arab girl and asked what she likes to play with, most of the children
inferred that she likes to play Jimjam. They deduced it on the basis of the ethnicity category
rather than going by the gender category. At the conclusion of this experiment, Professor
Diesendruck suggests that it is our primal instinct and we go with our gut or what we see to
categorize people. (Reisfieild, 2013)
Although Diesendruck concluded that discrimination is natural, I respectfully disagree. I
dont see how children can automatically form their own opinions on some races that they
havent even been personally exposed to. For a personal experience example, as I mentioned
early on, when it came to 9/11 and the attack on the twin towers, I noticed many Americans of
Middle Eastern descent being judged and looked at differently. The perfectly innocent were
being called terrorists. While watching documentaries this year on September 11th, my
roommates and I began to discuss our stories of what we remember from that day since we were
only in kindergarten. Then, my roommate Alyson said something that stuck with me. She talked
about a time following that day when she was at the airport about to go on a family trip. She was

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in line going through the security check points and there was someone of Middle Eastern descent
in front of her. Alyson told me that her and someone she was with began talking to each other
about how scared they were of that person and how they felt uneasy about him riding on their
plane. That seems like a normal fear for a person during that time right? Wrong, she was only in
first or second grade. How did someone so young already think that a person was bad without
even knowing them? Did Alyson actually decide for herself that the man in from of her was a
terrorist or had society convinced her that she should think this way?
I believe that with proper education and the showing of what is right and wrong, these
behaviors can be changed. Take, for instance, the experimental study, Educating Children to
Decategorize Racial Groups, which was done to see if teaching children to decategorize people
and try to find them as more similar, which in turn, will decrease racism and discrimination. In
this study, the experimenters created a PowerPoint presentation that consisted of 25 slides
teaching about decategorization. The PowerPoint was divided up into different sections; the first
11 slides taught anthropology of different skin tones, the next for taught biology and the genetic
similarities of the different races, the final eight slides taught that people came to America to
escape prejudice and talked about what make this country a great place because of its ethnically
diverse population.
Afterwards, the 65 students answered the Racial Decategoration scale. This basically was
a 30 question survey asking questions dealing with beliefs, stereotypes, feelings, and other
knowledge. With this inventory, the lower the score indicates that there was less categorization
which in other words means there was less racial discrimination. The results from this study
showed that the experimental group, the individuals that were given the presentation, scored
lower than the control group of students who had not been taught the lesson. This means that the
experimenters hypothesis had been correct. Perhaps education in decategorization might

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outweigh the effect of family, friends, and the medias emphasis on racial categories and
differences. (Jones & Foley) This is important because it shows that if children are taught to
decategorize people then maybe racism and discrimination will lessen and people will become
more accepting. It also shows that this type of education has more of an affect than societies and
its influence on us to separate people into these said in and out groups.
It is normal for children, since they have not yet been exposed to many things, to take on
the ideals and beliefs of their families. There was an interview with a man, Jeremy Odell, who
lived in Mississippi during the 1950s in the heyday of segregation who now refers to himself as a
recovering racist. In 2015, he was asked to speak with a fifth grade class in Michigan who
were learning about civil rights. He went through and talked about his memories from that time
and didnt really think much about it. During his discussion with these fifth graders he realized
that they were very insightful people and not just little kids. They have their own thoughts and
had a great understanding of the world around them. This made Odell realized that he too must
have been understanding of what was going on around him during those times of great racism.
Then why did he follow it?
But its not the villains we must reckon with. Our role models were people we loved and
trusted, those whom we allowed into our souls without question. Its an elderly white
neighbor whom I loved dearly, telling me that her black yardman, Joe, was not to be
referred to as a Mister. My schoolteacher who acted like it was the right thing, the
appropriate thing, the moral thing for her students to have nice schools and new
textbooks and a school bus, while the black kids went to class in dilapidated buildings,
used our castaway textbooks and walked to school regardless of the weather. It was my
preacher who told us to love black people, but that God wanted the blood of the white

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race to remain pure. The kind clerk who attended to me, a child, the minute I walked into
his store while black adults remained waiting in line. (Odell)
This just shows that all of these people Odell mentioned contributed to him following these
1950s ideals. His parents, school teacher, preacher, and all the other people that taught him this
was a normal way of living, were also taught this same way. It seems to be that racism and
discrimination sometimes is passed down because thats how those teaching were taught too.
But how can we make this cycle stop when theres something in todays world as
influential as the media. There are still books today that are being published or old books that are
still in circulation that hold these racist and discriminatory themes. Jessica Valenti, columnist for
The Guardian, a popular newspaper website, wrote about a time that her daughter had returned
home from school after their library day holding the book Travels of Babar. She was shocked
that a book like this was being circulated in a childrens library. This book was full of highly
offensive and racist images towards black people. Valenti had enjoyed this book through her own
childhood although she hadnt realized then how offensive this book was and was very surprised
when her daughter had brought it home. In her column, Valenti says, This isnt the first time
Ive encountered racism in the media to which my daughter has been exposed (Aristocats, Im
looking at you), and Im sure it wont be the last. This is important because it shows that media
is full of racism. Valenti understands that this wont be the last time she or her daughter is going
to experience racism from the media. She suggests taking a head on, proactive approach when
teaching your children about racism. Simply hiding them from anything that may show racism
wont help or teach them at all. According to Valenti, the best defense against racism is to arm
the children with information about what racism is really like. More importantly, they must be
taught that it is unacceptable.

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Work Cited
Jones, Lauriann M., and Linda A. Foley. "Educating Children to Decategorize Racial Groups."
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Mar. 2003. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
Odell, Jonathan. "I Am a Recovering Racist: I Was Somehow Taught Hate as a Gift of Love."
Saloncom RSS. Salon Media Group, 30 June 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
Reisfield, Smadar. "Are We Born Racist?" Haaretz.com. Haaretz Daily Newspaper, 8 June 2013.
Web. 18 Oct. 2015.

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Valenti, Jessica. "You Can't Ignore Racism and Raise Anti-racist Children. You Have to Tackle It
Head-on." The Guardian : Race Issues. Guardian News and Media Limited, 12 Mar.
2015. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.