The Personal side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I would love to say that I have never experienced bias, prejudice or oppression, however I live in reality and in America. I am an Ethnic female living in predominant white male America; so I have experienced one to all the above actions. By now, as much as I have experienced these incidents it is almost like second nature and at times things that I shrug off. While that is terrible to think of I have learned that you have to choose your battles. And many times this is not one of them. These happen to much that I cannot say that these types of behaviors will ever stop.

An incident that hurt me most but I had to move on if I were to ever be better, was at work. I had a boss who turned to me for everything and appreciated that I was great at my job, however when it came to promotion and moving up, they over looked me and hired someone else for the job. Not only that but asked me to train that person, everything I knew. It did come up that the new person could not do the job as well as I did and never did I get the credit I deserve and when things went wrong, I was the one, they called to clean it up. I had to leave because I was never appreciated and felt like I was only kept at the bottom. This was done in a small town. I was not from that town and I was treated like that. The small town was in Idaho, mostly made up of farmers, etc. I am an ethnic minority not from Idaho and was only brought there because of my husband’s career. I was treated like a second-class citizen. It hurt and I could not continue on. So, in the end, I left. I loved my job, but I did not fit in so I left and moved on to better things.

        With this particular incident there was no equity. They was a clear action of favoritism. I cannot say that it is something that is new to me. I have seen it time and time again. It is not what you know that shines through but who you know that outweighs anything else. In comparison on standards, if I and the new lady stood side by side just on qualifications alone, she would not compare. All she had going for her is that she was from the small town and graduated from the school years previously. I on the other hand had college education, and experience in the job, but we saw who won. A true testament to inequality.

        I learned a lot from this experience. I loved my job and have had to take a break from teaching but it is still in my heart. I am not as hurt as I was in the beginning only because I don’t like to hold on to things because I know that the only person this hurts is me. I can probably guess 100% that my old boss sleeps well at night and is not thinking about me. In the end I don’t like to hold grudges I need to be free from things so that I can have blessings in my life.

        Because of the small town mentality, I don’t forsee and equality happening here. But if there was, that mind-frame has to change. We need to offer opportunities to those that deserve based on qualifications. When promises are made, things need to be honored.