Sunday, February 14, 2016

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression


 

 

One memory that I have of prejudice is when I was working in a school and it there were a lot of Burmese of some of the kids were making comments about how they dressed and the food they brought in to eat. I could see how it was making the kids feel.

The way it diminish equity was that the American kids felt that they were better than the kids from Burmese. They felt their race was superior to them and they should be more American like if they were going to live here.

 This made me feel bad and ashamed of the way the American kids were treating someone who was different and from another country. I just wanted to grab the kids and tell them how rude they were being.

 Like I said above I would like to take the children and talk to them how everyone had the same rights even though they are different. I would explain to them how things were in their country and invite the Burmese kids to tell them about it and how they wanted to keep their culture plus learn the American way of living.

2 comments:

  1. Mary,

    Great post!
    If you do not mind me asking what country were the Burmese children from? It is sad that they were picked on because of the way they dressed and the food that they ate. It is sad to say that even in this day and time children are still picking on other children who are less fortunate than they are. I do not think that children fully understand how important it is to have high self-esteem and that other people have feelings as well. What the Burmese children experienced was microaggression. That could have been a teachable moment for you to talk with the children on picking on others.

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  2. Hi Mary,

    Reading your blog made me realize even more so that I have been a microaggressor. It is sad that children have to experience what the Burmese children did in your school. I too however have made the statement that those who immigrate her should want to assimilate to the American way. My reasoning has always been when we go to Rome we must do as the Romans do, I see now how wrong that is. This course has truly been an eye opener for me. Thank you for your post.

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