I've written about this before, but I will do so again to address the real side of bias, prejudice and oppression this week. A month into my new position at a child care center I experienced an extreme act of aggression, prejudice and hatred. On a fairly normal Sunday afternoon a man chose to come to my place of work and open fire in the parking lot of our building. He hurt several people, and killed two innocent people. This man specifically came to the building because of his bias towards the Jewish faith. The choices that he made hurt the entire community, and changed the lives of several families in an instant.
This man spewed hateful words as he committed this hate crime, and let his pure prejudice towards Jews be openly known.
This specific incident really opened my eyes to the topic of bias, prejudice and oppression, because before this I had not really experienced much in my lifetime. I became very aware of the hatred some people have for specific religions.
Many women have experienced some sort of bias by their 30s, I have chosen a field that really embraces women, and opens HUGE doors for them, so I have not had to deal with oppression related to my gender. However, that doesn't mean that I'm not aware of it. Many friends of mine have been turned down positions because of their gender--only to be passed up for male applicants who are less educated and less qualified. It is very hard for them, and me, to understand this inequality. With this specific case, in order to turn it into an opportunity for greater equity, I thin that there need to be stricter guidelines for equal opportunity employment. I see "EOE" on many job postings, but I wonder who monitors this?
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