As a child I never was integrated into any youth spaces besides an after-school program provided by my catholic school for students whose parents worked past normal school hours. The school was in Providence, and I would estimate that about 75% of the students were white and 98% the faculty and staff were also white. Throughout my school age years and throughout high school I never once had BIPOC teacher, and I never once thought anything of it until I came to college and having my first black professor. Even after hearing Ronya share some of her experiences on Saturday and how not having any BIPOC teachers growing up affected her. I never once had to think to myself "why doesn't my teacher look like me" because they were all white. This also leads me into thinking about how that 25% of BIPOC students saw our teachers who didn't look like them. What was going through their heads as children and how has it shaped who they are today? Did they look at their teachers and think they couldn't be a teacher one day because the representation wasn't there?
These articles also brought up some early memories from my undergraduate career when I took my first history class. I had the most amazing professor who blatantly stated that Christopher Columbus was an awful person. This was the first time I was hearing of this, and it made me want to know more. He was a murderer, slave owner, forced his religion onto people and so many other awful things. I find it disgusting that within the history of youth work and specifically within the YMCA they would have the children play "Indian" and "Savages". I guess they ignored the fact that Christopher Columbus was all of those things I listed above and maybe thought it would be inappropriate for the white children to play "murderer".
The article "Community-Based Youth Work in Uncertain Times" gives me feelings of joy and solidifies for me, why youth workers do what they do each and every day. It is all about building relationships and building trust with the youth that we are working with. Our youth are part of our community and these community-based programs are crucial to their overall development and participation as a member of their own community.
The White Man's Burden Poem Summary and Analysis | LitCharts
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