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HD 361 Social and Political Context of Human Development

Reflection
Ruth Camberos Velez
Throughout the years I have encountered myself in different situations that involve
injustice, bullying, racism or discrimination. It is sad to see that I am not the only one and I
wont be the last one. There are many ways in how someone can be discriminated or put down
by people that are biases or simply discriminatory. There are people who still think they are
better than others due to their socio-economic status and education. During this class I was able
to learn more about how people are discriminated for their race, culture, beliefs and any other
difference they may have. Through this class I learned how to be more sensible about how other
people are different, but still human beings that deserve respect. I learned that many people were
inspired to fight and defend their rights and other people rights. Martin Luther King fought for
the African American people who were segregated by whites, who were humiliated and
mistreated, and in some cases murdered. It makes me sad to see that now in days these biased
reactions and racial oppressions still happen in our society today.
Injustice is something that I do not tolerate in my classroom. Discrimination is not
accepted between my students. Segregation in any way will be unacceptable and not allowed in
my classroom or between my students. What the African Americas and Native Americans went
through is not only considered bias it is also the name calling, bullying in any way,
discrimination or any other negative reaction taken from others to minimize and make someone
feel bad because of who they are. I advocate for my children every day, and expect them to be
respectful. It is my responsibility to make sure children are being treated with love and respect.

As an educator I make sure my children are exposed to an anti-bias classroom. I make sure I am
not stereotyping any of my students or their families. I make sure everyone under my care is
treated equally and his/her rights are being respected and taken into consideration in any
situation. I listen to children and acknowledge what they have to say. At the end of each day I
make sure I analyze myself and see if I did anything that could offend any of my students in any
way. If I make a mistake I make sure to apologize to the child at that moment.
I want to be a leader for my student a leader against bias, bullying, discrimination or
segregation. My goal when I started school again was to learn as much as I can to be more
successful in my career. I learned more about African American segregation and how they
suffered to have their rights to be respect. I also learned how the Native Americans were being
segregated from their own lands and even right now this is still an issue. Government took their
land back in history, and they still do take their lands now.
It is very sad to see that in a way we still suffer segregation and discrimination according
to where we are from, how we live, how we are dressed, how we talk or if we have an accent,
eye color, skin color, etc. We see a big discrimination and bias revealed from our current
Republican Candidate for President Donald Trump. He made his dislike for immigrants public.
He accused specifically Mexicans of being rapists, robbers and many other bad things. He
accused immigrants of taking the jobs of American citizens. He accused immigrants of
destroying this country; but, he does not talk about the millions of immigrants that live in this
country and pay our taxes. He does not talk about the increase of immigrants in the universities
and colleges who are getting educated. He does not mention great immigrants who are leaders in
this country like Jorge Ramos, a journalist from Univision Television who was taken out of a

press conference by Donald Trump security just because he asked him a question regarding his
allegations about immigrants.
I am determined to work with every child in my classroom to help them grow into being
independent, self-sufficient, socially emotionally prepared and with a secure self-esteem that will
lead them to be successful in life and advocate for those that did not have the privilege to be
educated. I will work hard to teach these children that we are all equal and no one is better than
anyone.
Overall this class was very informative about the discrimination and segregation of
different people in history. One of the most important topics taught in this class was about the
fight for women rights. We deserve to be educated, treated as human beings and not as
housekeeping or baby setters. That made me think in how our Hispanic culture still segregate
girls and educate them just to be wives and mothers. I learned that if I educate parents and show
them that girls can become professionals. Girls are able to succeed in life and we have the same
rights as men. By educating parents I am helping children to be themselves and fight for
anything they want in life. After taking this class I reaffirmed the belief in girls education and
successfulness. As a matter of fact, education for everyone is important. Children have the right
to be educated and not segregated just because they come from another country or culture.
I am going to make sure that in my classroom boys and girls are treated the same. As well
as any other child with different gender or sex orientation is treated the same. We all deserve to
be treated equally and that means EVERYONE.