Understanding Human Diversity and Populations at Risk - Assignment Example

Understanding Human Diversity and Populations at Risk Life is a process in which our circumstances today may hugely determine how we live our lives in the future. Many psychologists have explained human behavior while relating it to the environment the people in question grew up in, and the experiences they underwent during their growing up. It is a fact that our past experiences determine how we perceive things in the present. Though many people tend to deny it, each one of us in one way or another have exhibited the traits that we are so much against at one point in our lives. Some of these negative traits are racism, ageism, xenophobia, homophobia and classism. At one point of our lives, we all exhibit such behaviors. Well I am not an exception, although I must admit that most of the instances when I exhibit such traits, I don’t do it intentionally; it just happens as if it’s something intrinsic. In my life, I have also experienced instances where I have been discriminated on the basis of various aspects I possess. Understanding Human Diversity and Populations at Risk 1. Make note of at least one occasion when you personally experienced a prejudiced attitude or engaged in discriminatory behavior toward: Instances where I have experienced a prejudiced attitude or engaged in discriminatory behavior toward: a) Someone of the other sex. In school, it was always believed that the boys were more intelligent than their female counterparts. This is mainly because boys used to perform better in technical subjects and sciences. In effect, whenever we were supposed to do an assignment in groups, boys never wanted me to join their group because as a girl they saw me as being weaker and less intelligent, yet they would take other boys whose performance were way below mine just because they were boys. b) Someone of my own sex. I told off one of my closest girlfriends in school and detached myself from her because of a rumor that was milling around school about me. I thought that since my other friend was a boy, it was obviously her who had spread the rumor since girls are known to be blubber mouths. I chose not to believe in her side of the story because between my two friends, she was the girl. c) Someone of another ethnic group. Being from a rather small and marginalized ethnic group, most of the powerful people around me are from other communities. We once went to a camp with other schools in our locality. Issues started when I introduced myself and people discovered that I was from this community that people believed was of barbaric and illiterate people. I ended up not having friends and people avoided having me in their groups during competitions. d) Someone from my own ethnic group. Since my ethnic group was kind of small, in some other places it was difficult to find people with the same ethnic background as mine. In grade seven, I was transferred to another school that was a bit near the town. Most of the students there were from affluent backgrounds. I was happy to find out that one of the students in our class was from the same community as mine. I certainly thought we would be friends, but to my amazement she would have nothing to do with me. She said that we were different because I was brought up in the township hence still harbored the barbaric traits of people from our ethnic background while she has been brought up in the city hence were a fine breed. e) Someone older than myself We had a boy in our class who was far much older than the rest of us. I once refused to have him in our discussion group, not for anything, but just for the reason that I thought he would not fit in the group. f) Someone younger than myself My sister is about ten years younger than me, and she certainly likes hanging out with me, though, at times, I am not comfortable with the idea. This is because she is too young to understand some of the things my friends and I talk about, or some of the things we do. I once had to tell her off and send her home as she was insisting to accompany us to a party. I would not mind if she was older, but her age would just not allow it. g) Someone about your own age. I was sent to school at a later age than my age mates. I thus happen to be at a lower grade than then. They, therefore, discriminate me at many instances. They would avoid hanging out with me because they feel we are not of the same level and I should be hanging out with people from my class. h) Someone of a homosexual orientation I refused to share a seat with a girl who was rumored to be a lesbian. I felt uncomfortable around her, so when she came to sit near me during lunch break; I stood up and sought another seat. i) Someone with a heterosexual orientation. I once disapproved of a relationship between my neighbor and her boyfriend. Though they were opposite sexes, I considered the guy a bad influence to the girl. j) Someone of a higher economic group. Most of my colleagues in school were from affluent backgrounds. The rest of us that were from middle class families would not want to associate with them because of the way they openly and constantly looked down upon us. One of them was, however, different, but before we knew this, we had already discriminated her. She wanted to be friends with me, but I told her off and showed her that I was not interested. I did this because she was rich without considering that she had a different personality. k) Someone from a lower economic group. Members of our class were planning to go for a weekend outing during one of our holidays. Some members of our class and I were not even invited. They thought we could not afford it because we didn’t come from affluent backgrounds as they did. I was left out, and I just thought to myself that they would have at least asked. l) Someone of your own economic group A family friend who was used to hanging out with her rich friends despite being of the middle class group refused to include me in to a party list because I did not look the part. Though we were of the same economic group, she deemed herself better than I was because she hanged out with much cooler friends than mine. Though I really wanted to go to the party, she wouldn’t let me. m) Someone you think is better educated. My friends and I formed a youth group in order to have a platform to discuss issues that affect us and come up with projects that would generate some income for us. The membership was open, and most of the youths in our community joined the group. During the nomination for election of leaders, I refuted the nomination of one of the group members. Though I cited other reasons for my move, deep inside I knew I was doing that because of his education status. I was thinking because of the fact that he was highly educated than most of us, if given a leadership position he would look down upon us the more and manage the group solely and in a dictatorship manner. n) Someone you think is less well educated. A girl in our locality liked me and showed interest in hanging out with me; I avoided her because I thought I would not have a lot of things to discuss with her since I thought because she was less educated she was equally less exposed. o) Someone who looks different from you When growing up, I developed a defense mechanism where I avoided hanging out with people I deemed more attractive than I am because I didn’t want to be compared to them. I refused to hang out with a classmate at home just because I felt inferior when with her because of her looks. p) Someone who looks similar to you I also discriminated someone who looked similar to me because I hated how people would compare us to find where we differed. My childhood best friend started avoiding me because someone commented that I had better hair and eyes although we looked similar in most other things. This is because she started seeing me as a competitor. She refused to let me join the schools cheering squad in which she was the leader. q) Someone more physically able- bodied than myself I wanted to join the schools’ basketball team, but when I showed interest the captain told me that the game was not for the frail people like I was. Though he didn’t tell me, not to, I couldn’t find it in me to go on with the dream of playing in the team. r) Someone less physically able-bodied than yourself When I was a child we liked playing the famous tag of war. One day we were five of us so there was an extra member and I refused to have him in our team because he looked frail. s) Someone you consider more intelligent than you. I once discouraged my friends from including one of my classmates in our study group because he was remarkably intelligent. I thought he would steal the limelight from me since I considered myself the most intelligent in the group at the time. t) Someone you consider not as intelligent as yourself. A classmate who had issues with mathematics asked to join our study group. I refused because I thought that she would make us spend more time in our discussions because of her inability to grasp things faster. u) Someone who has a different belief system We were once just having a social discussion about dressing after school. As one of my classmates who were a Muslim started voicing his opinion, I loosed interest in the discussion and even openly challenged his knowledge on the same. This is because I grew up knowing that only the Christian doctrines are right. I, therefore, believed that whatever the boy would say was definitely wrong. v) Someone with a similar belief. In the same discussion, another friend also started making her contribution. Because she was not articulate in speech, I was afraid she would misrepresent what we believed. I was even scared of listening to her thinking that she would mess up the situation. 2. How prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behavior might influence our personal and professional life and how we can eliminate the influence of personal biases in working with diverse groups. These prejudiced attitudes and situations in our lives not only affect how we see ourselves but also how we perceive others. If a person was once discriminated because she is not good looking, chances are, that person will continue having a low self-esteem later in life. It is also common to find people who were once perceived to be less intelligent, performing poorly in their professions and being less efficient. This is not because they are not intelligent, but because they believed it and is, therefore, afraid to unlock their potentials in the fear of doing things the wrong way. Once a person lets the prejudice get into him/her, it makes them feel inferior and hampers their productivity in various aspects of their lives. The influence of personal biases can effectively be done away with by working with diverse groups. This gives us the platform to learn and appreciate people the way they are. Through groups, we learn that different people have different abilities, and each one of them is, in their own way, important. Apart from that, it also gives us a chance to appreciate ourselves and the abilities we have. References Barndt, J. R. (2007). Understanding & Dismantling Racism: The Twenty-First Century Challenge to White America. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2010). Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States (3 ed.). New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Graves, J. (2005). The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America. New York: Penguin Group USA. Reilly, K., Kaufman, S., & Bodino, A. (2003). Racism: A Global Reader. (K. Reilly, S. Kaufman, & A. Bodino, Eds.) New York: M.E. Sharpe. Read More