The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

Well I would have to say there is a girl at my job who is friends with the director and it seems as if she gets away with anything she does. She calls off all the time or tells the director that she needs a day off at the last minute. They bear down to every need which we do not understand it at all. It is like she has something on the director, so they let her do whatever.  This has been going on for a long time.

Another issue I have dealt with is people in my family being prejudice of other people from another race. They seem to think people of the African American background are nothing but trouble. That was hard for me to understand due to me doing foster care and taking in children from other cultures all the time put me in a situation I should not have to worry about.

In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

I think this issue diminished by all of the other co-workers always wanting to know how she gets to do what she wants. The director has started to make changes to treat her the way she treats everyone else. She kept saying she is a really good teacher we just need to give her some time she is having a rough life, but it was not fair to everyone else who had to work their butts off while she did whatever.

I feel that as me having the children in my home has changed my family about being around children or people from other cultures. They seem to take them in as the family and do not hold anything against them for the culture they have.

 

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

The feelings I had was that she was treated a lot different from everyone else which was not fair, but I think after talking to the director she could see our point of view. She began changing they way she would always give in to this certain person, and everyone seems to like her more than they use to.