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? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

I do not have any personal incidents when I personally experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression. When I think of those things the movie that springs straight to mind is Forrest Gump, one of my all time favorite movies. All throughout the movie Forrest is overcoming bias, prejudice and oppression because of who he is. In the beginning of the movie his mom is being told he can't go to public school because his IQ test he scored just under the norm. He was picked on and bullied but still accomplished great things in his life because he never gave up.

• In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

Equity was diminished in the movie because every time you turned around Forest was being treated as if he was not good enough. Every person deserves the right to an education and to be treated with respect. 

• What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

This movie mad me angry whenever Forrest wasn't being treated fairly. It made me want to be in the movie so that I could let him sit on the bus next to me! No person should be made to feel less than another.

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

I would have educated the teachers and students that different does not equal wrong. 

Brandie