Saturday, August 9, 2014
The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression
I can recall one incident that my friend experienced a prejudice act. I have a girlfriend who is African American we raised our children together and we visit each other offend. When our sons were younger they were in basketball teams in their perspective schools. The teams had played against each other during the year with no incident. It was the championship game and the game was hosted on our home team court. The bleachers are located on one side of the gym so the opposing team would set on one side and us on the far side. My girlfriend and I sat next to each other in the middle. They were winning and of course she was cheering her son on and I was teasing her; at that point one of the parents on our side looked at me and ask “why are they even here”? The other parent did not know that we were friends so I introduced her to my girlfriend. The other parent remarked hello and left. I felt so bad and was angry my girlfriend advised me not to waist my time in being angry at foolishness. We enjoyed the rest of the game and her sons school won the championship game. Our boys showed true sportsmanship by expressing a warm welcome to the others team members and joking around.
This act of prejudice diminished equity in that my girlfriends rights to be at our school was infringe upon because she is African American in a predominately white school. The attitude of the white women would have to have change in order for the situation to change and be equal for all. I admired my girlfriends out look and her mature response to the situation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sandra,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your friend looked past the hidden message of the woman's microaggression. She chose to ignore it and rise above it. I imagine that could not have been easy. I enjoyed reading the part about the sportsmanship showed by the the boys playing basketball. It shows that you are raising your children to be culturally responsive. I think this is key in order to reduce the amount of bias and prejudice that we experience in the world. Adults model behaviors for children. You and your friend are correctly modeling how they should be in the world. Hopefully the son of Caucasian woman has a different view of the world than his mother's. Thank you for sharing.
Myra
Thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, acts like this happen all to well in our community. What was a sports act between children, gave someone the opportunity to make hurtful comments as an expression of their own personal anger and feelings. I am very sorry that this happened to your friend.
ReplyDeleteHi Sandra
ReplyDeleteSadly to say there are many people who react the way the lady did at the game. But you defused the situation and that is what we have to do when we find ourselves in situation like the one you described in your post. What message do you think the lady is sending to children and others. Some messages are best not read.