The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

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.

Reference

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).