I
have witnessed many incidents that are bias throughout my life. I was
in one of the middle eastern country and I decided to walk into a
shop in a mall. There was no one in that shop except for one
salesgirl who happens to be an Asian. She saw me coming in, I smiled
at her and wished her but she didn't respond and went back to her
work. I was looking through the things in the shop when suddenly I
heard her saying “ Welcome”. Just before I turned around to look
at her, I thought maybe she realized that she forgot to greet as she
was too focused in her work ( she was writing something). I turned
around to look at her but I was surprised to see that she wasn't
looking at me and smiling. She was looking at the front of shop and
then I realized she actually stood up, smiled and greeted a bunch of
Middle easterners who just walked in the shop. The irony of the
situation was that, those bunch of middle easterners didn't even
smile or respond back to her greetings.
This
particular incident diminished equality by each one looking down upon
the other and thinking the other person is unworthy of a simple
greeting or smile. This made me feel sad, angry and I couldn't do
anything but laugh at the situation. I think the change needs to be
done from the grass roots. Parents and social surroundings need to
teach children how to respect and not be bias of others. I feel our
generations or the generations before us have failed miserably in
creating a world without bias, prejudice or even oppressions. We can
change this so that the future generation can live in a better world.
Thank You Pushpa for sharing your story. I understand how you feel that at that moment all you can do is laugh at the situation. At work I see people from different countries and nationality but I try to treat equally and not that long ago a customer hurt my feeling when all I came to do is try to help him twice and he you are discriminating me just because he was Korean. Everybody knows that is not me. All I could do was laugh because I knew I was doing my job. I agree with you that we can change this that the future generation can live in a better world.
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