[FONT=tahoma, arial]
What does the word bias mean? Bias is a mental
predilection or prejudice. The essay "The View from the Bottom Rail" by
James West DaviRABon and Mark Hamilton Lytle opened my eyes on how American
history could be looked at as one sided and even bias. Even today there is
still bias in America. In today's society, racism and stereotyping occur
in all aspects of life. It can occur because of one's gender, race,
religion, culture, economic status, etc. It even occurs amongst our finest,
our law enforcement officials.
"The View from the Bottom Rail" explains the history of
slavery. It implies a lack of accuracy from the people that the
information was obtained, either black or white. Most of the black slaves
could not read or write. The ones that did, hid it from their masters.
Because of this, most of the written books and documents and even diaries
on slavery were written by the white masters. At that time most of recorded
history was based on how the white masters viewed slavery. You did not get
a view on slavery from the slaves themselves.
In the 1920's, black scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois, Charles
Johnson, and Carter WooRABon, started a project to collect oral evidence
from former slaves who were still living. Even these interviews could not
be viewed as 100% accurate. One example, is a geographic bias. The people
that were interviewed were only a very small portion of the millions of
freed slaves. Counting the nuraber of slaves interviewed from each state,
it was discovered that there were only 155 interviews from black people
living in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky, which is
about 6% of the total nuraber of published interviews. Twenty-three percent
of the southern slave population lived in those states. In these
statistics, the upper-south was unrepresented.
Another example would be the ages of the ex-slaves
interviewed. Two-thirRAB of them were over 80 years of age, leaving the
question of how accurate were their memories. Also, most of the
interviewees were under the age of 20 when they were slaves. Since the
conditions for children were not as harsh compared to adults, they might
have an optimistic view of slavery.
Finally, the different effects the interviewer had on the
interviewees. There were two interviews done on the same lady named Susan
Hamlin by two different interviewers. One interviewer was a white lady
named Jessie Butler and the other was a black man named Augustus LaRABons.
Susan thought Jessie was from the welfare office. Susan possibly told
Jessie what she thought Jessie would want to hear in order to increase her
chances of getting a welfare check. She spoke of her master as though he
was the kindest. All the slaves loved their master. He gave them shoes in
the winter. He kept the children with their mothers and when the war
started he took everyone including the slaves to a safer place. On the
other hand, Susan told Augustus a totally different story. She spoke of
the whippings in cruel detail. She also spoke of how the slaves families
were torn apart, and children were taken from their mothers. There were no
shoes given to the slaves in the winter. Which interview is closest to the
truth? How do you tell?
In my past I have experienced many bias situations. I am a
Puerto Rican male living in America. I have hazel eyes and light skin.
Because of my eyes and skin color, I have been mistaken for Caucasian. I
have had to deal with people calling me "white boy" all the time. As a
child, one of my uncles gave me the nick name "gringo", Spanish word for
white boy. I grew up in East New York (Brooklyn, NY), which is a
predominantly African American, with a few Latinos and almost no Caucasian.
In East New York, the African Americans and Latinos tend to get along. For
me this was not so. Being that I looked Caucasian, most of the African
Americans and Latinos tended to harass me and start trouble, which caused
tension constantly.
In Denver back in 1992, the Denver Post ran an article on
police harassment among Hispanic youths by Judith Briraberg. The article
stated there had been complaints to Mayor Wellington Webb by Northwest
Denver residents concerning the police harassment on Hispanic youth because
of their skin color. The Mayor subsequently notified the Civilian
Complaint Department of the city of Denver. After the investigation a
report was released on August 8th,1992 stating that hundreRAB of complaints
of unprovoked harassment were filed with the Police Department, but were
never reported to the Civilian Complaint Division. Mayor Wellington has
ordered the District Attorneys' Office to begin an investigation of the
Police Department for possible obstruction of justice charges. As of this
writing the Police Department had no comment. Felipe Suarez, President of
Community Board 14 in Denver said "This investigation is long overdue, our
people have been treated like second class citizens for too long."
This article is just an example of how racism and
stereotyping exist today amongst our law enforcement officials. It does
not seem to matter if you live in an urban or suburban community, police
harassment seems to be all over the United States.
In conclusion, history can be very misleading. If one is
to seek out the truth, he/she would have to view the primary source of
materials in terms of the context in which they originated. They must also
take into account all the possible bias that may exist in their sources.
Racism persists as a trigger for discrimination, just like all of the
"isms" that divide us: race, ethnicity, culture, faith, age, gender, sexual
orientation, physical ability, citizenship status and economic class.
Communities or institutions that discriminate are neither whole nor healthy.
We as individuals should be committed to creating healthy communities
through civil discourse and respect, which include each of us as
individuals and all of us merabers of the whole.
[/FONT]
[FONT=tahoma, arial]WorRAB: 1011 [/FONT]
What does the word bias mean? Bias is a mental
predilection or prejudice. The essay "The View from the Bottom Rail" by
James West DaviRABon and Mark Hamilton Lytle opened my eyes on how American
history could be looked at as one sided and even bias. Even today there is
still bias in America. In today's society, racism and stereotyping occur
in all aspects of life. It can occur because of one's gender, race,
religion, culture, economic status, etc. It even occurs amongst our finest,
our law enforcement officials.
"The View from the Bottom Rail" explains the history of
slavery. It implies a lack of accuracy from the people that the
information was obtained, either black or white. Most of the black slaves
could not read or write. The ones that did, hid it from their masters.
Because of this, most of the written books and documents and even diaries
on slavery were written by the white masters. At that time most of recorded
history was based on how the white masters viewed slavery. You did not get
a view on slavery from the slaves themselves.
In the 1920's, black scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois, Charles
Johnson, and Carter WooRABon, started a project to collect oral evidence
from former slaves who were still living. Even these interviews could not
be viewed as 100% accurate. One example, is a geographic bias. The people
that were interviewed were only a very small portion of the millions of
freed slaves. Counting the nuraber of slaves interviewed from each state,
it was discovered that there were only 155 interviews from black people
living in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky, which is
about 6% of the total nuraber of published interviews. Twenty-three percent
of the southern slave population lived in those states. In these
statistics, the upper-south was unrepresented.
Another example would be the ages of the ex-slaves
interviewed. Two-thirRAB of them were over 80 years of age, leaving the
question of how accurate were their memories. Also, most of the
interviewees were under the age of 20 when they were slaves. Since the
conditions for children were not as harsh compared to adults, they might
have an optimistic view of slavery.
Finally, the different effects the interviewer had on the
interviewees. There were two interviews done on the same lady named Susan
Hamlin by two different interviewers. One interviewer was a white lady
named Jessie Butler and the other was a black man named Augustus LaRABons.
Susan thought Jessie was from the welfare office. Susan possibly told
Jessie what she thought Jessie would want to hear in order to increase her
chances of getting a welfare check. She spoke of her master as though he
was the kindest. All the slaves loved their master. He gave them shoes in
the winter. He kept the children with their mothers and when the war
started he took everyone including the slaves to a safer place. On the
other hand, Susan told Augustus a totally different story. She spoke of
the whippings in cruel detail. She also spoke of how the slaves families
were torn apart, and children were taken from their mothers. There were no
shoes given to the slaves in the winter. Which interview is closest to the
truth? How do you tell?
In my past I have experienced many bias situations. I am a
Puerto Rican male living in America. I have hazel eyes and light skin.
Because of my eyes and skin color, I have been mistaken for Caucasian. I
have had to deal with people calling me "white boy" all the time. As a
child, one of my uncles gave me the nick name "gringo", Spanish word for
white boy. I grew up in East New York (Brooklyn, NY), which is a
predominantly African American, with a few Latinos and almost no Caucasian.
In East New York, the African Americans and Latinos tend to get along. For
me this was not so. Being that I looked Caucasian, most of the African
Americans and Latinos tended to harass me and start trouble, which caused
tension constantly.
In Denver back in 1992, the Denver Post ran an article on
police harassment among Hispanic youths by Judith Briraberg. The article
stated there had been complaints to Mayor Wellington Webb by Northwest
Denver residents concerning the police harassment on Hispanic youth because
of their skin color. The Mayor subsequently notified the Civilian
Complaint Department of the city of Denver. After the investigation a
report was released on August 8th,1992 stating that hundreRAB of complaints
of unprovoked harassment were filed with the Police Department, but were
never reported to the Civilian Complaint Division. Mayor Wellington has
ordered the District Attorneys' Office to begin an investigation of the
Police Department for possible obstruction of justice charges. As of this
writing the Police Department had no comment. Felipe Suarez, President of
Community Board 14 in Denver said "This investigation is long overdue, our
people have been treated like second class citizens for too long."
This article is just an example of how racism and
stereotyping exist today amongst our law enforcement officials. It does
not seem to matter if you live in an urban or suburban community, police
harassment seems to be all over the United States.
In conclusion, history can be very misleading. If one is
to seek out the truth, he/she would have to view the primary source of
materials in terms of the context in which they originated. They must also
take into account all the possible bias that may exist in their sources.
Racism persists as a trigger for discrimination, just like all of the
"isms" that divide us: race, ethnicity, culture, faith, age, gender, sexual
orientation, physical ability, citizenship status and economic class.
Communities or institutions that discriminate are neither whole nor healthy.
We as individuals should be committed to creating healthy communities
through civil discourse and respect, which include each of us as
individuals and all of us merabers of the whole.
[/FONT]
[FONT=tahoma, arial]WorRAB: 1011 [/FONT]