The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I have discussed my personal experience with prejudice growing up and being educated in school setting where my culture was not represented many times in discussions, journals and applications therefore, I will discuss an incident where I was the witness.

I work in a community that is predominately Caucasian; I suppose it’s about 95% white.  However, my assistant is African American, who was born, raised and educated in this county and as result of this statistic she and I share similar challenges during our childhood.

I have worked at this center for nine years and she has worked there for about 11 years. Needless to say that we have a classroom full of children who are predominately white and occasionally this becomes a problem for my assistant.  I work for a Head Start Agency who has five centers in four different counties; however, my center is just one classroom. Therefore, with me being a center manager and lead teacher I have to attend many trainings and meetings, so at least once a week I’m away from the center.  From time to time my parents often use microaggression remarks that are hurtful and she often thinks they are discriminating against her. It also puts me in an uncomfortable situation because she and I are very close and have a great working relationship.  Recently I had a parent say to my assistant, “I don’t think K likes it when Mrs. Lewis is away from the center, it seems like she has a bad day every time she is away”.  A few days later after my assistant tells me what the parent had said, I had the opportunity to mention the remark to the parent, who stated, “Yea K isn’t use to black people and I don’t think she likes Mrs.????.  I thought I would fall out of my chair, I couldn’t believe this parent was admitting this to her child’s teacher. I explained to the mother the importance of teaching our children about diversity and that we would in cooperate diversity into our curriculum throughout the year. However, I thought it was right think not to tell my assistant what the parent said. I thought it would only make matters worse.

This often causes my assistant to have hard feelings toward the parents who make these comments. In reference to how this diminished equity is that our schools are no longer segregated therefore, everyone should be treated equally and if your child is educated in public school you should leave all the microaggression at the door.  When I’m put in situations like this it makes me very uncomfortable and I immediately become defensive inside in protection of my friend/my assistant but have to keep my professional composure.