The
Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression
Memories I have of an incident that I
witness of someone experiencing bias, prejudice and oppression was during my
middle childhood years. I can remember my cousin being pulled over by the
police one evening for no apparent reason. They made him get out of the car on
put his hands on the hood of the car. He was asking them what the problem was;
however, they continued to harass him. They finally said that a group of White
college students had been in an altercation with a black male driving a car. They
arrested my cousin. My mother had to leave work early to take care of this
matter. This caused her boss to cut her pay for the day. My cousin was being
racially profiled and stereotyped because of the color of his skin and his
social status. He had not been in an altercation with anyone and was later
released by the police.
Prejudice can be manifested in personal
bias, discriminatory practices and its worst, acts of violence. Prejudice is
most often used to refer to preconceived judgments toward people or a person
because of race, social class, ethnicity, age, disability, religion, and sexual
orientation. This incident diminished the fairness and social justice. The
impact of race and racism continues to influence the life prospects of America.
Stereotypes, prejudice and
discrimination can all serve to undermine the moral functioning of our
meritocracy, as individual efforts are often overshadowed by inaccurate
perceptions and unfair expectations. It
is of paramount importance that we work to overcome the obstacles that
group-based biases impose. According to Derman-Sparks & Edwards (2010),
what all stereotypes have in common is the mistaken assumption that of you can
identify a person as a member of a particular group, then you can know
essential information about that individual person.
All people would have to change in
order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity. Bias based
on gender, race, or social class creates serious obstacles. Unfortunately,
people are categorized and this can be used to label people unfairly with
stereotypes.
Derman-Sparks,
L., & Edwards, J.O. (2010). Anti-bias
education for young children and
ourselves.
Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC).
