The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

By

Anita L. Coles

I grew up in a state where the majority of the people were prejudice. However, unless one knew what to look for regarding prejudice one might miss the little subtle signs, for example, many years ago, a situation took place in high school during gym class (now call PE).

During some of our gym exercises the girls would need to hold hands. (There were only two Blacks in our gym class, me and another girl) This particular Caucasian girl (back in the day the girl and boy gym classes where separate) would hold out her pinky finger to me and she would tell me “no I am not holding your hand; give me your ‘baby’ finger,” and that was the extent of our holding hands. Sad part was that the teachers would allow (Taylor, 2011) . 

As I stated before, I have encountered many of such as above mentioned; there are some that I have forgotten; I would need to think really hard to remember, and then there are some that are hard to forget. The next one was when I was working in a factory I was still quite young and had not experience adult individuals being prejudice toward me. A few days after starting work, an older Caucasian male told me that he did not want to work with me because I was “Colored.”  My response to this  particular gentleman was that that was his problem not mine, and as long as he did not hit me or use any derogatory  words  towards me…everything would be fine (Less than six months were became very good friends).  (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 24).

        When my family and I moved to New Mexico I was sure life would be different as far as experiencing prejudice and so forth.  I thought that all people of color experience the same things. Well I was wrong, I learned that prejudices comes in many forms and is the product many of oppressed situations. I was doing my monthly grocery shopping. The individual who was my cashier was Caucasian male; he totaled my account to be a little over $200.00. I than realized that I had left my “card” in my car, I informed the cashier that I would need to run to my car to retrieve my card.

        The casher told me that he would wait until I returned. I ran to my car found my card; grabbed my card and run back to the cashier. When I went to hand the cashier my card, I noticed that my groceries dollar amount had changed considerably; it went from over $200.00, to  almost half the amount; just as I was about to ask him why the amount changed he noticed my card and quickly hit the cash register keys to change back to the $200.00.

        Then it hit me, he thought (or better yet, assumed) that I meant that I was going to get a “Food Stamp Card.” (EBT card)  Once he realized his mistake he turned redder than a beet, he sheepishly apologized, and tried really hard to quickly bag my groceries. I did mention to him that he may not want to prejudge the next individual before first gathering all facts there were other people waiting to check out behind me, each smiled and nodded their heads in agreement (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 26).

        To be honest, I felt a little sorry for the young man because he truly displayed prejudgment. I am sure had I not been a person of color he would have expected the card to have been “Visa,”   MasterCard,” or something similar.  As an educator, I really saw this as an opportunity to help a young man understand how prejudice can work, and if he wanted to, he could use the situation as an opportunity as well to learn a valuable lesson (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 21).

        We all have our own bias; prejudices; and maybe even oppress a person or two; I know I have my and am trying to understand and work my way through them.  Dealing with the girl in my gym class, the man at the factory, and the young cashier reminds me that we are not perfect and before I can work on someone’s bias; prejudices; and creating the act of oppression I first need to understand and work on my own (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 23).  

 

 

 

 

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010) Anti-bias education for y

        young children. The National Association for the Education of

         Young Children; Library of Congress Number 2009938138

        ISBN: 978-1-928896-67-8 NAEYC item# 254.