The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression
An incident I remember associated with bias, prejudice,
and oppression when I was in 6th grade. My friends and I were going
swimming in the community pool. As we
enter the pool there was a group of girls (white). They were laughing and
having fun so my friends and I decided to joy them. Because we knew them all of
us attended the same school plus we all
played together before. I noticed one of the young ladies leaving the pool as
we enter. Then she motions to her
friends to do the same thing. So I went up to the young ladies thinking maybe
there was something in the pool, and ask what was wrong. The one who first got out of the pool stated
to me, “we don’t swim in the pool with black people”. I asked her why she felt
that way. She looks at me and said that’s
just the way it is.
I remember going home telling my mother and grandmother
about what had happen. I even asked my mom why my friend felt that way. She
stated to me sometime people attend to look at other differently. When they
feel they are more dominant and because of our race, that’s when I learned what
discriminate was. I never really paid attention to my friend’s race or gender
all I care about was we were friends. My
mother and grandmother always raised my siblings and me to appreciate and
accept people for who they were. However, when I experienced that type of
behavior from my friend, it leads me to believe that people are stereotyping me
because of my race. Even though I
enjoyed hanging out with my friends (white) I never played with her again. Not
because I was angry but because I felt like she was never my friend. Also
because she saw color in our friendship and I didn’t.
Hi Yalanda,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your experience with oppression. The incident that I wrote about in my blog also took place when I was a young child in elementary school. It is interesting to me how many of these incidents occur during childhood between children. It makes me wonder what they are learning at home, school, or what they are observing in society. There is a very good chance that children are picking up these negative attitudes and beliefs at home. They may also be learning them from television and other media. Racism and prejudice is like a vicious cycle. Parents may pass it down to their children, and then those children may pass it down to their children when they get older. We are aware that racism exists, it is up to us to put an end to it. I wish more people worked harder at this!
Yalanda, its so unfortunate how these memories get embedded in our minds, but somehow they make us stronger. Its so hard when these people who we look to as friends, are not friendly to us at a certain point. Its really unfortunate because I think sometimes children act out of what is instilled upon them from their parents and families. Oftentimes i think children act a certain way towards others to keep the peace with their own and not rock the boat. Repercussions at home sometimes drive the way we act.
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