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.

