Hidden Biases

My Insight Into Hidden Biases
Lisa Chouinard
University of Central Florida

My Insight into Hidden Biases
In this paper, I am writing about my own personal experiences and perceptions of biases and prejudices. Although I have some experiences with biases and prejudices, the idea of hidden biases is a new concept for me. I will be merging what I already know with the new concepts that I have learned from the website.
Knowledge Gained
Learning bias at the toddler age – This definitely explains why we have biases from the very beginning of school when it’s the first time being with a group of peers. Our parents are our first and most important influences in our lives. It is important that they instill good values and beliefs in us, as well as setting a good example by their own actions regarding biased and prejudiced behaviors and communications. I had the experience of going to a school that was all white, the community was all white, and the attitudes of all was that black people were not wanted and bad. I actually heard other students stating that they would

shoot any black person that tried to come into their neighborhood or school. It was frightening for me to hear such words from teens who clearly adopted this way of thinking from their parents. No one is born with biases and prejudice, it is learned and instilled in us by our parents, relatives, friends, neighbors, community and media. I believe if we don’t demonstrate bias and prejudice in front of our children, they have a better chance of growing up without ever having these biased thoughts or feelings, hidden or otherwise. As the website stated, once learned it is harder to unlearn, because you can’t forget what you know. Unfortunately, we have a long way to go to effect this change on a macro level which is needed to accomplish this goal.
Hidden bias –This is something I never thought of before. I was not raised to be prejudiced, but if I am the only white person in the room, or it is mostly other races, I find it difficult to not feel uncomfortable. I believe this is the case, partly because I have rarely been in situations where the majority was not white. A lack of experience as well as possible hidden bias may be to blame. There is also the fear of being rejected from others being prejudiced against white people. Most people think of prejudice against minorities, but forget that there can be reverse prejudice when minorities don’t like white people. Most biases and prejudices go both ways, there is no one race or ethnicity that is immune to discrimination.
Reflection on Knowledge Gained
I have learned a lot about hidden biases and prejudices from reading this website.

I was not aware of how early in life we can have biases instilled in us. Even though I was not raised to be prejudiced, I was also aware of an almost subconscious drive to prefer playing with other white children. It was also apparent, that the minority children also tended to want to keep to their own ethnic groups. Where I grew up at, ninety-five percent of the children in my schools were white, so I would have a hard time knowing how I would interact in schools that have a higher number of minorities. I was never opposed to having friends from minority groups, but I can remember some of my friends not wanting to. Peer pressure mostly kept me from having minority friends. I would have to conclude, that it was the parents of the other students in my social group that were responsible for this

trend.
Affective Reflections on Learning and Experience
In conclusion, I would say that this website has given me a lot to reflect on. I intend to be more mindful of my verbal and body language with regards to interacting with other students, and my future colleagues and clients. It seems that so much of what we do and say is so deeply instilled in us, that we most often are not even aware that we are doing it. Not having a lot of experience socializing with minorities, I have found it harder than it would be if it were not new to me. Being a student again at such a big university, has given me a lot of opportunity to interact with people from other cultures and ethnicities. Although very different in personal values and beliefs, we are all in school together with the common goal of growing as people, learning and working towards getting our degree and starting a career. I feel that by the time I am finished with schooling and beginning my career, I will have accomplished getting enough experience working with people from other cultures, that it will give me a good foundation to build on towards being able to achieve cultural competence when working with future clients.