An incident that where I
have witnessed someone being the target of prejudice was at my former place of
employment at a head start in the inner city of Baltimore. That particular establishment’s
staff was located in a poor area within the city and is always in need of
teachers, along with also having an extremely high turnover of staff. One day a young Caucasian
women came in for an interview for a lead teacher position, and seemed very
young but eager to teach. After the interview I overheard the director and the
education coordinator speaking stating they would never hire her because she wouldn’t
be comfortable around the African American students and should go teach with her own
people. The prejudicial assumptions that she would be incapable to understand
or handle the kids based on her race was truly baffling to me. The fact
that it is illegal to not hire someone based on their race, is awesome but often hard to prove that it was a barrier to getting hired so more often then not happens all of
time. That particular incident diminished the equality that is supposed to be
established in order to give everyone a fair chance at gaining employment,
regardless of their race, ethnicity or any other social identity. I was shocked that that aspect of
discrimination was even being discussed aloud, but it also made me angry the more I
thought about it. How dare they assume that the young women was incompetent based
on the color of her skin, and how many times had I myself been viewed in that
light after an interview.
I think that the employer would have to evolve their philosophies
and learn to focus on their applicants qualifications instead of their race,
only then could this and other incidents like this be turned into a greater opportunity
for equity.
I enjoyed reading your post! This type of behavior really sadden me because you have so many people being overlook for job because of their race. In your case at your job the students are the ones that will suffer from this type of discrimination. I had a similar experience with a job I applied for as well because I was a African-American women applying for a teacher job in a all white school. Nevertheless, I didn't get the job but however I am still working in a school where they are children of all ethnic background.
ReplyDeleteThis mindset is why we lose so many professionals in the field of education. Not only did the students miss out, but the young woman's confidence to teach could have been affected as well. Administrators have to be mindful that it's not only the students who are learning but educators as well. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteHello Ashley,
ReplyDeleteI had a very similar situation with a family member that I explained but the racial identity was the other way around. My family member was not hired based on the color of her skin at least it is assumed that this is the case. I think this behavior is so unfair and has the potential to make a person feel defeated and can weigh on their self worth and self confidence.
I think that happens more often then we realize and sometimes not because of a racial bias but because they don't think a person is going to be a hard worker because they are young. I do try to hire only experienced individuals and I try to make it a diverse set of teachers and because I have more African American staff, I try to look for applicants to even that out and I have interviewed and hired them with that balance in mind. Is that a bias move?
ReplyDelete