We Are Biased

I want to be a person that says or thinks that they do not have biases, but over the years and the more I understand myself and the world, I understand that everyone has biases. Our biases are just of different topics and at different levels. We are all biased about something or other. Sometimes our biases stop us from being able to see the perspective of others and stops us from being able to understand some behaviors and attitudes. Sometimes our biases are conceived from personal experiences, things we hear, or just no thought at all.

A bias of mine came from a personal experience. An experience I have long put in the back of my mind to be forgotten, but the nature of my work has now brought it to the surface. I want to be ashamed, but I know that I have no control over the fact that this happened. I have a cousin who is autistic. When we were younger, I remember that when his family used to come to our house or visit any of our family, the adults would immediately put him in a separate room. He was isolated from the very beginning. I have many cousins, so I understand that is could have been overwhelming for him. But that was how we now grew up. He was always isolated and when we questioned it to an adult, they would immediately put fear of aggression into our minds. We as children we taught not to go near him.

I grew up not knowing my cousin as a person but his disability. I grew up not wanting to be near him because that was what I was taught. I always wanted to question this as a young child but given direction from an adult made it clear, he had a disability and we were not to go near. As a psychology major now I know better, I knew better then to, but fear of the authority always over-weighed the urge to say something.

Imagine now the biases that were put into my mind because of this. It has made me feel insecure about the way I meet and interact with people with any special needs. Me, my heart, and mind does not want to be awkward to say the least, but somewhere in the back of my mind, where the conditioning still is makes me feel as though I have a biased attitude or behavior.

The point is to understand your biases, to understand that we have them and that it is okay, sometimes. As long as you are not letting your biases take control of your attitudes and behaviors. One of my main standpoints is that a great way to learn to be more empathetic is to learn from people with different viewpoints then yourself. Learn to be able to work with different people and with people who you might not agree with on certain issues or topics. Also, to understand how they came to this certain viewpoint. We as humans are prone to having a side to everything. We like having certain opinions and that is not always bad. Sometimes it helps having a bias to be who we are, having an opinion gives us things to discus and gives us character. What we need to realize is that sometimes it’s better to put those biases aside so that we may be able to learn and understand perspectives we did not think we would be able to understand.

Aleena Ali

Your Sunshine