During grade 11, I had my first experience of racism. Unfortunately, this event lasted for one semester. A math teacher, who I still remember the name of, treated me so badly that it forced me to get my parents involved and eventually transfer out of the class.
Approximately 3 years ago, I was assigned to a math class with a newly hired teacher. Initially, I thought the teacher was very kind to the class and even offered after school tutoring to anyone that needed it. Keeping this in mind, I was the only African Canadian in the class, and I also continuously received high marks on his tests. Things started going downhill after the unit tests and pop quizzes began. After almost after every quiz, unit test etc. he would come over to me during
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I was so afraid of reporting my teacher to the principal, ultimately due to my underlying self esteem issues and embarrassment. Referring to the article written by Robert Brooks, Ph.D, “How can teachers foster self-esteem in children?”, he emphasizes that a basic component of high self esteem is having control over the different areas in your life.(Brooks, 2016). Relating this back to me, I now realize the reason for my lower self esteem is because I felt like I didn’t have any control over the situations that were going on. Furthermore, a study completed by the Oxford university also yielded the same results, “racial microaggressions have damaging impacts on the emotional health of racial and ethnic minority young adults” (Cuellar, Matthew J., Forrest-Bank, Shandra S., 2018). In terms of myself, I continuously encountered subtle microaggressions in the form up him not wanting to believe I was smart enough to get high marks on tests, resulting in public …show more content…
In terms of my future nursing practice, I would also make sure never to make any patient feel belittle or insecure over treatment they are receiving. More importantly, I would never make any patient feel unequal or discriminated against because I personally know how terrible it can make a person feel and what it could lead to if not taken care of immediately. Furthermore, I would avoid making comments leading to self doubt or discouragement and ultimately belittling the patient. (Child Self Esteem,