Over 59% of teenagers in the U.S. experience cyberbullying at one point in their lives (Pew Research Center). The outcome cyberbullying brings forth is heightened rates of depression, anxiety, and alternatives such as suicide. In the classroom, it affects students academic performance. Oftentimes, teenagers are also afraid of attending school. All of these unfortunate effects affected the life of Ashawanty Davis. A possible solution to minimize victimization both in school and online is through multicultural education. Cyberbullying is a prevalent problem as teenagers are growing up learning about a Eurocentric view of history. This view limits the cultural perspectives students know, and misconceptions about racial minorities continue to develop and widespread. The implementation of multicultural education can help lessen cyberbullying as students learn about different cultural perspectives, learn to think critically, and become increasingly open-minded. This will help in deconstructing false stereotypes and prejudices against people of color. Originally my focus was primarily on minimizing cyberbullying victimization of black students, however, multicultural education can be beneficial to all racial minorities.
The United States encompasses a wide range of diverse cultures. Our population consists of a diversified set of cultures, traditions, beliefs, and values, consisting of people
from different racial backgrounds. The U.S. is gradually becoming a majority-minority society. Soon, racial minorities will become the new majority in the U.S. An analysis of demographic changes in the population from 206 to 2060 found a gradual decline in the white population and a surge in racial minorities by 2060. The two racial minorities with the largest proportion of the increase are Hispanic/Latino and Black/African American populations. As our demographics shift into this majority-minority nation, our education has to change to adapt to this growing change in demographics. Multicultural education is important as it includes teaching methods that incorporate people of color in various subjects such as science, history, language arts, and math. Multicultural education would emphasize to teenagers that people of color are important too. According to Banks, multicultural education allows students who are members of diverse racial, ethnic, language, and cultural groups to have an equal chance to achieve academically in school. Not only are people of color being acknowledged and embraced at school, but white teenagers will be able to learn about their peers diverse backgrounds. White teenagers can be educated on cultural backgrounds aside from their own and diminish their stereotypes and prejudices against people of color. This aids in reducing cyberbullying against racial minorities.