Teens facing discrimination

When a teen faces discrimination

The politics of race, religion, and difference become more complex as teens get older. Most Canadian cities have very diverse populations, and teens are accustomed to learning and socializing alongside people of many different backgrounds. Even teens in small homogeneous communities are connected to the wider world by TV and the Internet and are exposed more frequently to religious and ethnic differences. But there is still plenty of insulting name-calling in the halls of high schools, and it can be very hurtful to the young teen who belongs to a visible minority and is so conscious of her appearance. When she is developing a wider circle of friends in her middle teen years, she may struggle with whether to move toward teens who have a similar background or to develop a different circle based on her interests. In her late teens, she may enter the working world and wonder whether prospective employers will judge her on her outward appearance rather than her education and skills.

As your teens become more sophisticated and aware of the world around them, they start to put into context all that they've learned as children about their family history. Do your best to enlarge their understanding by exposing them to books, movies, art, and videos that tell about the history of slavery, the Holocaust, or the turmoils of Southeast Asia. Talk with your teen about how Native Canadians are treated in your town, whether sports stars are realistic role models for people of colour, and whether disabled people have equal access to services in your shopping mall. Be a critic of the media and the positive and negative ways in which they portray people of other races, but refrain from lecturing. Make discrimination the topic of a family discussion in which your son tells what he has seen happen at school or what he has heard his friends say. If you treat his contribution with respect, it will encourage him to continue listening to you and will give you an opportunity to see how he thinks about these issues. Keep bolstering his pride in his own background.

You should continue to monitor what your daughter is learning in classes, though you will probably do it at a greater distance than you did when she was younger. Ask to see her textbooks and homework, get involved with parent groups, and take every opportunity to talk with teachers and administrators at the school. You want to know how inclusive her education is and what attitudes are reflected in the hallways. Teens who don't feel at home in their school, because of discrimination or inadequate curriculum and resources, are at risk of poor academic performance and of dropping out. You can contribute to the diversity of your teen's high school by offering to speak on career days or by chatting with teachers about the curriculum and resources in each discipline. Perhaps you think the course in twentieth-century history should acknowledge the role of the Asian Allies during the Second World War. Sometimes a few words from parents are enough to encourage a teacher to broaden his focus; sometimes it takes hours of work on school curriculum committees or a proposal from a group of parents to the school staff.