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?

Over the years I have seen many slavery movies that share the documentaries of how slaves were treated unjust because of their race and/or culture. The movie “Roots”, written by Alex Haley, is a well know film that shares the life of many African’s who were captured and taken from Africa and sold into slavery. The movie share how African’s were treated as uncivilized humans, torn away from their families, beaten and hanged for not obeying their masters, and woman and young girls raped and abused. Recently, my husband and I watched the newly released movie about Nelson Mandela. The movie shares the life and ministry of Nelson Mandela and how he fought for the native rights of the people of his country. Both movies are very interesting and give the viewer an inside peek of the entire heart ache and pain that people of color had to endure in their lives. It is so awful to know that individuals are disliked, discriminated against, abused, threatened, and tortured for no apparent reason other than they are not the "same" as the majority or have a different color skin tone. The most recent event that I witnessed was of a co-worker who received a bias or prejudice remark from one of the parents at our childcare center. The parent addressed my co-worker as the ‘Mexican Lady” instead of addressing her by her first name. Not only did the parent do it once, but she did it twice without giving it any thought. When the incident was brought to our supervisor’s attention, she asked my co-worker to introduce herself by her first name the next time the parent was to come in contact with her. Well, my co-worker did just that and the parent totally ignored her and again addressed her as the “Mexican Lady”.   

 

In what ways did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

Equity was immediately diminished once the parent addressed my co-worker as the “Mexican Lady”. If the parent did not know the name of the employee, she could have introduced herself and then asked the teacher what her name was. It isn’t fair for anyone to be called a name other than their given name. I am sure that the parent is not called the “Black Lady, or Caucasian Lady, or Chinese Lady in her work settings. What really surprised me in this incident is the fact that the supervisor never spoke with this parent regarding her actions. As the administration, I believe that this patent should have been addressed about what she had said not once but twice. I believe that morals, values, and equity are no longer in many childcare centers. It seems that it is more about childcare spaces being filled and money to be made. Who knows this woman may be still walking around offending other teachers and committing microagressions. This type of mannerism needs to be put to an end. Employees as well as children and families in child care settings should feel safe and secure in their environments. As long as behaviors such as are ignored, more and more people are at risk of becoming the next target or victim of racism and/or microaggressio.

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

When my co-worker mentioned what had happened to her I was speechless. I immediately told her to speak with our supervisor but apparently that led to a dead end. My emotions and feelings were all over the place. Actually I had taken it personal even though I was not a part of the incident. It also made to think about how important it is that during parent orientations, parents should be made aware of how they are to respect the employees just as the employees are to respect the children and their families. Most childcare centers have a notification of parent rights as well as a notification of personal rights as parents. I believe that there should also be a notice of employee rights that parents must adhere to as well. I have worked in many childcare centers were the teachers felt inferior of their students parents. Sometimes parents are rude and treat teachers as babysitters and not as their child educator. This type of misunderstanding or behavior should be stopped.

What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

First of all I believe that it is the responsibility of the centers administration to address these types of incidents as soon as they arise. It is unfair and unjust to have made the teacher or employee deal with the parent on that level. Childcare center should address issues related to rights of employees and respect of employees at the beginning of the school year so that incidents such as won’t happen. A few years ago my son attended a private school. There was many different staff that played different roles in the day-to-day operations of the school. Each parent and their children were taught to address each and any staff as “Coach”. I thought that this was very nice and there was no room for mispronunciation of first or last names. It taught the children to respect their educators when addressing them. I personally like it! All changes to turn opportunities into greater equity must start with leadership within organizations. Once leadership is in order, all else will fall into place accordingly.