UCLA Professor Delivers Lectures on Racism to Ethics Class

 On Sept. 22 and Oct. 6, Dr. Tyrone Howard from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) delivered lectures to Mindy Webster’s Ethics class virtually about the impact of racism throughout history and how to address it. At UCLA, Howard teaches and researches multicultural education, the social and political context of schools, urban education, social studies education and the educational experience of African American students. 

Principal Dr. Brent Kuykendall listened and participated in the lectures alongside the students. From Howard, Kuykendall learned the importance of forming an awareness about the biases and privileges that some people have based on their socioeconomic status or race. 

“Howard’s main message was to remind us of our unconscious bias,” Kuykendall said. “No matter how much we all individually feel that we look at everyone without bias, [it] is always ingrained in who we are.” 

In his lecture, Howard also discussed the existence of systemic racism and white privilege. Although Junior Araya Britton was already aware of these issues, the lecture was still meaningful to her because it solidified her pre-existing views on the 

 fight for racial equality. 

“[The lecture] made me more passionate [about solving racial discrimination issues],” Britton said. “[Howard] was very articulate with his words and he put [his points] in a way which was really easy to get behind.” 

After raising awareness about these current racial issues, Howard further instructed the students on how to fight against racism and help those who are targets of it. For senior Caroline Horn, this was the most important lesson of the lecture. 

“I thought he did a really good job talking about what people can do who are not Black,” Horn said. “[Howard] covered what we can do as allies and how to not appropriate [culture] that does not belong to us or have a white-savior complex.” 

Kuykendall is grateful that Howard delivered his words to students at Peninsula. He believes that the community must bring its attention to racial inequities by inspiring younger generations to take steps toward a world with increasingly equal treatment of all races. 

“The youth is our future,” Kuykendall said. “I think it is very important for our [students] to push our country in the direction [of being accepting] of all and aware of our differences and our similarities.”