Conference

I’m Human Too: Education and Multiracial Children

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Abstract

For multiracial children, growing up in the American education system can be a confusing and dehumanizing process. Imagine the challenge as a child with one black parent and one white parent learns about the history of slavery in the United States. Due to the limitations of our vocabulary, we wrongfully categorize these children into a single racial group, forcing the multiracial child to feel increased pressures to assume a mono-racial identity. The misrecognition and nonrecognition of a child’s racial/ethnic backgrounds serves as a constant reminder of their ostracism from their peers. Frequently, multiracial children assume both private and public identities. The marginalization of multiracial children is of growing concern as we move toward a more diverse educational system.