The effects of Bias and False stereotypes

               

Flash Fiction – As a person’s age goes up, his/her innocence goes down, and false stereotypes and biases take its place.

Artist Statement- Younger kids don’t understand how the real world works, me as 16-year-old having seen a glimpse of the real world have my doubts about my compatibility and my future responsibilities. Young kids are innocent because they have not yet encountered the society that scars your mind with false preexisting stereotypes and false biases. Young kids between the age of 4 to 10 seem to have the most innocence because of the lack of time spent in the world. Society has a heavy influence on a person, it changes them either for the better or for the worse. So younger kids have little to no bias and adding to their all loving personality are just the thing we need in today’s world. The image of me talking to my younger self-advising them not to change and falling under the influence of society as they might corrupt your innocence and make you bias towards certain things. My Flash Fiction also makes a comment about how when kids grow up they tend to lose their innocence as they get forced into believing the false stereotypes and the false biases.

Reflection

                

               This unit I have mainly focused on biases and stereotypes. Learning about these things has really opened my eyes and made me comprehend the effect these can take in our society. I catch myself one every few weeks making my decision based on my pre-existing biases and the stereotypes I have used for the majority of my life. People’s reliance on their biases and their learned stereotypes is similar to a “reflex”, as they use it without even knowing they did. In this class we did different activities to understand more about our bias like taking a survey called the “Implicit bias” to see what we preferred over other things, watching different Ted Talks, reading articles on bias and stereotypes, and watching documentaries on this subject. One of the Ted Talks we watched was from Verna Meyers who is an influencer and a cultural change catalyst on how people’s predispositions have a negative effect on different races, she gave example on how African American men and teenagers  are getting fatally injured due the misconception that people have developed about this race over this period. She first starts off with describing her journey through Ferguson, Missouri, then she goes on to imagine a world where every race is equally embraced by another (Meyers). Meyers then quickly switches up the subject to how does racial hatred and preexisting stereotypes is getting a lot of people in trouble with the law. According to the research done by “The Guardian” the news company states “that an African American adult is 4 times more likely to get killed by the law enforcement compared to a Caucasian man in the same age range.” (Guardian). Verna Meyers and the implicit bias test, both try to convey the same exact points which are that the people tend to lean on a certain side on every issue and the more they encounter people with the same preference  the more confident they became and start changing the mind of the other who may not see eye to eye with them (Implicit, Meyers). Julia Galef, a writer, and a public speaker on rationality only add to these points saying that “Biases are created from the Solider mindset, which is a constant fear of being wrong and convincing yourself that you are right even though the evidence says otherwise.” (Galef). Galef also says that if people switch their solider mindset to scout mindset they can widen their point of view, think clearly and make the right decisions in life, she also add example such as Alfred Dreyfus to strengthen her point(Galef). Meyers also recommends that some steps to overcome bias and that are first people must know that there is a problem, the second step is positive association which is that people need to stare at successful and popular African Americans as they are the examples of the stuff this beautiful race can accomplish (Meyers). So, if we combine Galef and Meyers we can eliminate bias and move on to a better and a more diverse nation. Growing number of people in the U.S. want to change the false preexisting stereotype that naïve people follow and rely on their day to day life. A large group of people who have taken the implicit bias test tends to associate good things with the Caucasian race and bad things with the African American race. Due to the news and social media, people are getting informed about the mistreatment towards the African American and now take a stand waiting change. People now wish fairness because of the brutal treatment is shown on TV towards African Americans such as police officer Jon Burge of Chicago Police Department was televised using extreme methods in order to arrest a 16-year-old African American teenager (New). Due to this many people now take a stand to break the false stereotype and the false bias. People have a default reflex, a set of prejudice which is created by the society they live in and which they rely on when facing adversity, and because we now live in a more diverse society it is more important than ever to transform our false biases and our false stereotypes. 

Roberts, Sam. “Jon Burge, 70, Ex-Commander in Chicago Police Torture Cases, Dies.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Sept. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/obituaries/jon-burge-dead.html.

Swaine, Jon, and Ciara McCarthy. “Young Black Men Again Faced Highest Rate of US Police Killings in 2016.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 8 Jan. 2017, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/08/the-counted-police-killings-2016-young-black-men.