It is impossible to live in the United States and not have biases; many times we do not even know they exist until we are presented with a situation. We may hear things in the media, family members or friends talking about certain things. For example, a stereotype of individuals of Asian descent will always be good in math. Of course, this is not true – every person of Asian descent is not good in Math but we have developed a stereotype about this because perhaps we heard a teacher say this or perhaps a caretaker/ parent. Another example, may be that all women should be home taking care of the home, children and family – women should not work outside of the home. Another example is a bias can be developed when we hear racially motivated descriptions of individuals especially when we are young and do not understand what is being said. We cannot escape having biases/prejudice. What is important is that we work to eliminate these biases when we become aware of them. This is what we are responsible for. As we go through the semester I am going to ask you to think about these things, and this can be difficult.
Please think about the biases or prejudices that you have or had in the past. How did you learn about them? Did you hear conflicting messages from different people in your life while growing up? What stereotypes do you hold and how can you work on changing your biases and stereotypes? I do not believe we can change a bias that we don’t know about, but what is important is to work on our biases once we become aware of them. I see this as a life long journey and as we embark on this journey of social justice we must first look within ourselves. This can be a difficult task but an important one. Please address this in your first reflection as well as other points that you found important.
