Racism: What It Is and How to Deal with It - Uned

Module 4 - Racism: How is it reproduced? | 107
Experiences of foreign students:
- A Colombian professor who was doing a graduate degree in Spain, when asked about
his experiences as a foreigner, commented that he had perceived how people on the
subway or the bus, when they notice foreigners, take special care to protect their
purses and wallets.
- Another Latin American student told her experience:
One Sunday she was looking for a restaurant where she was meeting some friends for
lunch. She was nearby but couldn’t find the street and asked a couple about the
restaurant and they told her how to get there. Ten minutes later, when she was arriving
at the restaurant, the husband came walking fast and asked if she was looking for a
job, because they lived nearby and one of his daughters was looking for a worker for
her home.
- A 12-year-old boy who is keeping Ramadan goes to the school lunchroom even
though he is not going to eat the meal. According to the teachers, the boy is nervous,
anxious, and creates problems because he is unsettled, especially when the rest of the
children go to the lunchroom. Because of this situation, they called the parents and told
them that, under the circumstances, the boy could not keep Ramadan.
Why do you think these situations happen? Try to empathize with the protagonists, put
yourself, hypothetically, in their place and “look at it through their eyes,” describing how
they feel. Think about situations in which you have felt discriminated against for some
reason.
In the 3 rd example, what strategies do you think the school could put into practice?
- A teacher who studied part of secondary school (Bachillerato 32 ) in different
educational systems (United States and Colombia) had to have her degree ratified in
order to enroll in a Spanish Institute (3 rd year of BUP and COU 33 ). Her grade average
from the previous years was a 9. However, the Ministry of Education and Science,
when it gave the ratification, assigned a grade average of 5 to her studies (this practice
probably continues at present), thus lowering the grade average of her record
drastically. Luckily, she wanted to do a degree that did not have a high cutoff grade, so
it didn’t damage her chance to go to the university, but if she had wanted.
This is a clear example of institutional racism. A student’s academic results were being
given a much lower value simply due to the fact that she had come from another
country, without taking into account the real grades and their equivalence with Spanish
grades. Why should her grades be given a value of 5, when the average was a 9?
Would the same thing happen if she had come from a European country? It is clear that
32 Last years of secondary school.
33 Equivalent to last year of secondary school and preparation for university.