The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

For the past weeks I have learned, observed and shared examples of microaggressions and their effects on the well-being of individuals.  Likewise, I have developed an understanding of personal biases and institutional prejudices, how they are learned and their influences on inequities and oppressions within a society.  During my studies this week I was reminded of the movie, ‘The Help’.  The movie is set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s.  The movie depicted Skeeter (Emma Stone) a southern society girl who decides to write a book exposing the racism that African-American maids are faced with as they work for white families.  In the book, the black women who had spent their lives taking care of prominent (white) southern families talk of the hardships they went through on a daily basis.  Their employers, hardened into condescending racist refused to allow them to use the toilets in their houses and as a result these women were restricted to a separate bathroom.  One maid (Minny Jackson) who needed to use a bathroom on a windy and rainy night could not go to use her toilet which was outside the main building resorted to using the toilet in the house and as a result was fired.  Also a request made by another maid of an advance payment to allow her to pay tuition for her sons to attend college was denied but rather her employers sparked some injustice which resulted in her being incarcerated.   Towards the end of the movie, the maid who was very instrumental in assisting skeeter in writing about their hardship was fired from her job indicating that the maids were not able to talk freely.  In essence, because of their skin colour, these maids were regarded as lowly hired help. 

According to Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010) biases whether intentional or unintentional, are damaging to the social, emotional and psychological development of human beings.  To me, the treatment that the women received was inequitable as they were demeaning, discriminatory and were inflicted on a specific group of people who were considered different from the ‘norm’. 

Viewing the injustices and internalized oppression inflicted on these women had me feeling rather saddened.  I was thinking –how can a human being inflict such treatment on a fellow woman being?  I am of the view that in order to change the injustices portrayed in the movie into opportunities for greater equity, there must be a change in the mindset of the dominant culture.  We need to learn to accept and appreciate the difference among us and be mindful of our biases as it is these biases which lead to such despicable behaviours whether overt or covert. 

Reference
Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).