Friday, August 9, 2013
The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression
A memory of an incident that I experienced bias, prejudice, and oppression happen about 4 years ago when I worked in pre-kindergarten. During this time president Obama was running for election. This made a lot of people mad, sad, and just racist's. This is what happen: We had to always sign in on the sign-in sheet on a counter in the office. There was sheet that had all of the republican candidates listed, and the message written on it was these are the people you need to vote for. It did not just stop there, one kindergarten teacher was so upset about president Obama running that her daily functioning was off target. She stopped speaking, she treated all blacks with disrespect, including the children in her class. This was really a bad time for her, and she did not try to hide how she felt.
The specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression diminish equity by: one letting the incident of the paper of who to vote for be put on the sign-in-counter. This was the responsibility of the secretary to remove it once it happen, but she just brushed it off. Two, the teacher that showed her racism should have been spoken to by the supervisor, since everyone knew how she felt. She was very verbal, saying things like we have to do something, we can't let this happen, just right out disrespectful. This incident brought up for me that racism is still here, maybe not in a greater form, but some people will never change, it is not because they don not know how, some just refuse to like or get to know other's of different races. I feel that we both should have to make changes: the kindergarten teacher in her negative feelings about black's ,and myself for maybe not understanding her feelings and what she may have experienced to bring out these negative feelings. I can recall at the beginning of this class when viewing the web video, Playing for Change: "War/no more trouble, the ending said we just need peace, and this is what we all need in order to live together in society.
Reference
Playing for change: "War/No More Trouble" ( Laureate Education Inc,2011). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgWFxFg7-GU&feature=BF&list=ML4oVf-d DwKA-bV3PQwJ5xcpVdi7B-TPk&index=3
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During that time I think that everyone felt or experience some type of racism. This was something that everyone was going to experience/witness our first African American President. I pray that you never have to experience this again and that we all do our parts and try our best to get along and respect one another. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLinda,
ReplyDeleteIt was during this time that there definitely were racist remarks I overheard as well. I can truly say that I shed tears when he was announced the New President when he showed up with his family on the podium to make his speech. I feel that racism will never go away as long as there is a division put in place about who feels dominant over other groups. This is a sad fact. However, we can overcome and see each individual as unique deserving of our respect, in the long run it will be a life lesson learned.
Thank you for sharing. It is unfortunate that that kindergarten teacher behaved that way and was not held accountable. It's a reminder that we still have a long way to go in our society.
ReplyDeleteLinda,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience. What I find extremely sad is the fact that she is a preschool teacher and the fact that she could not keep her bias from showing to the adults around her what kind of message is she sending the children in her classroom? What message is she subliminally sending her co-workers by thinking that Pres. Obama is not a qualified candidate simply because his father was black?
Annie P.