The memory of an incident that I witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression was recently with a parent or of our child care center. This young lady works as a private duty nurse. She visits the homes of seniors that maybe home bound and need around the clock medical attention. One day when going to work at a team meeting she discovered that her employer had fired all of the African American CNA’s but two of them and rehired all Caucasian’s. In a staff meeting the supervisor stated that I have heard rumors that I am prejudice. She started by opening the meeting with a statement that “I am not prejudice.” While making this statement she was only looking at the two African American ladies in the room. This was clearly prejudiced.
This specific prejudice in this incident diminishes equity because it clearly discriminated against a specific race. This also caused the African American ladies to question their abilities to work in this capacity. And they felt threatened. This sent a negative message and they both put in a two weeks notice to leave their jobs.
This incident made me feel slighted because there are so many prejudices against that occur some intentional and some unintentional against African Americans and females as well. It also caused me to feel saddened for the young lady because she worked really hard and long hours in school and internships to receive her certificates to work in her chosen field only to experience prejudice in her first weeks of work in the first job after completing her training.
To turn this opportunity into an opportunity for greater equity the supervisor should have provided and explanation to her staff outside of the meeting that validated the African American girls as good workers in this field.
No comments:
Post a Comment