The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

I have experienced so many prejudices and biases happen to me and to persons in my immediate surrounding. I am from a mixed ethnic family and I my first experience with prejudice came from my family. As a child growing up I always thought that everybody was equal and basically the same. I never thought about the color of your skin or how rich are poor you were but I became aware of these types of prejudices as soon as I was introduced to kindergarten. The experience that stood out for me was my high school years although I experienced much prejudice and biases before. Hampton school is a boarding school for girls. Upon entering high school I realized that the only children of a certain class were given much attention. I was considered poor but I never thought of myself as being poor because from very early, I believed poverty was just your state of mind. Although designer clothes, shoes and other material things were bought with lots of money I always believe these things did not complete you or defined who you are. The teachers at the institution did not hide their prejudicial and biases towards persons who were considered poor. I became very ill at school and was sent to the sick bay. I got no medical attention, my parents were not contacted about my illness and I was kept in the sick bay for a week without any proper care. I cried and felt rejected. I got mid term holiday break and I was sent home. My father realized I was ill and my temperature was extremely high but because of how simple he was he did not realize how ill I was because if the school did not make an issue of the illness he believed everything was okay but when I fainted and he took me to the doctor, the doctor told him I was very lucky because I was developing pneumonia. Because he was intimidated by the school’s authority he did not do anything about it. I realized I was treated unfairly because I was not one of the favorite, yet the policy of the school specifically stated that once a child becomes very ill, the parents must be contacted immediately. Other children who were considered rich were not only sent to the school’s doctor but there parents were immediately contacted so that they could come and get their children. This experience has taught me so much. As a mother of three children I am very protective and can get very defensive for my children. Once I detect any form of biases or prejudices for against children in any social institution whether at church or at school I defend my children and I make my voice be heard. I used my experiences at Hampton school to strive above the obstacles. I remembered the day of graduation like yesterday. The students were excited and of course we were making lots of noise before the start of the ceremony. One of the senior teachers just came to us and started shouting at us that we were the worst and that we would never come out to anything good. I used her words as a motivation to strive above the obstacles. I entered the field of teaching to help children who were labeled as ‘no good’ and ‘poor’.