Cultural Bias

There are many different stereotypes in the world today. They can be used for different categories like age, gender and race. Stereotypes are formed by the media, passed down from many generations and also just the populations need to understand the social world around us. Racial stereotypes make up large portion of stereotypes in today's society. Racial stereotypes can be used for comedic effect and our found to be funny by a majority of people, but they can also be depicted as hate to an ethnic group if it goes too far. One example of a race effected by stereotypes are Asian people. They have many stereotypes that have developed over the years. An example of a stereotype Asian people experience is that they cannot drive very well. Some

African Americans are not the only ethnicity group to be singled out with behavior. Racial and ethnic minority students report experiencing low teacher expectations, having less access to educational resources, being placed on lower educational tracks, and being steered toward low-paying employment (Kozol, 1991; Olsen, 2008).This low expectation is causing

Currently, general education classrooms have increasingly become diverse with both disable students and students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In order for educators to ensure that they effectively teach these classrooms, meet the needs of each student both successfully and individually, effective research that is based on strategies need to be implemented. The U.S. Department of Education suggest that, the current school-age population is becoming more diverse as time passes, yet, majority of the teachers in these schools are white non-Hispanic women. According to another report by The Condition of Education in 2006, American schools are portraying increased diversity and growth. The report suggested that, forty two percent of students in public schools were ethnic or racial minorities in the year 2003; this increased from twenty two percent since 1972. Owing to these reasons, teachers in these schools are expected to educate a diversified class of students including those that come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Teachers are therefore, required to implement a number of key strategies that will ensure that every student in specific classroom feels that he or she belongs there (Worrell, 2010).

Research has been conducted and the study showed that, "Latino students perceived that teachers' actions escalated disciplinary problems and believed that administrators used unfair and discriminatory practices"(90). Educators will never be able to teach students if the students perceive them as being racist. The degree to which education for cultural diversity is realized depends on the teacher's attitudes, knowledge, and behavior. They make the mistake of mismatching their own life experiences and professional training. Le Roux realizes that an increasing diverse school population encounters a mostly middle-class teaching force that is inadequately prepared to manage the reality of diversity in schools, and that is due to lack of knowledge of diversity (46). He also states that some teachers make the mistake of generalizing about particular ethnic groups and cultural groups, as a result of being exposed during training to information about culture; that is very dangerous in itself. Educators also focus mostly on general characteristics of a group instead in a single individual, and this is wrong because each individual is unique and should not be generalized by culture (Le Roux 46).

Furthermore the questions that guide this study are: “(1) how and why teachers participate in practices and policies that may undermine minority students’ academic achievement, (2) how elementary students respond to these practices and policies, and (3) the implications of

Prejudice comes in different shapes and sizes, so treatment of culture minorities differed with the circumstances.

In the article The World Is Not Black and White: Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot in a Multiethnic Context Implicit racial biases were examined in the decision to shoot potentially hostile targets in a multiethnic context. Results of two studies showed that college aged participants and police officers showed anti-black racial bias in their response times: the participants were quicker to “correctly” shoot armed black men or targets and to indicate “don’t shoot” for unarmed Latino, Asian and white targets. In addition to this, the police officers showed racial biases in response times toward Latino versus Asians or whites, and surprisingly, toward whites versus Asians (Sadler, Correll, Park, Judd, 2012, pg.286). These results also

Bias is something every person has; It is the inclination to feel prejudice towards a certain person, subject, or thing. On a personal level, bias affects just about everything a person could encounter, or has yet to encounter in their lifetime. There are two main types of biases people can have; Cognitive bias involves topics such as social attribution or memory errors, that are quite common and have a wide range of effects on how humans perceive things. The other type of bias is called social biases, or sometimes referred to as attributional bias. Attributional biases affect our everyday social interactions, and has a strong impact on people when trying to assess their own and others behaviors.

The main point that really stuck out to me during the reading of “Two assumptions & one ideal” was to look beneath the surface of the racial iceberg. Some underlying factors that affect racial attitudes are often below the level of awareness. An example of an underlying issue that surrounds the racial iceberg is how racism and inequalities are evident in the U.S. public school systems. Institutions such as schools make up our everyday realities about our assumptions on race and ethnicity. Students of color (i.e. African-American, Hispanic, and Native American) experience disparities in head start programs, college readiness, disciplinary actions. Currently, in New York minorities tend to have less access to competitive math and science classes.

The group that was targeted more was the Asian Americans. Since the railroad days in California in the 18th century, Asian Americans had been treated unequally. This was unlike the Latinos, specifically Cubans, who were well educated. Biased behavior created workplace unfairness as the most deserving and hardworking employees were ignored as opposed to less hardworking who were rewarded. Biased behavior led to unfairness and inequality in the workplace. The bias still exists today as racial discrimination is still on the rise in workplaces. The mindset of the US vs. them is still practiced as whites feel they are entitled to benefits unlike other minority migrant

Implicit bias can be considered as the attitudes or beliefs of an individual that affect under-standing, actions and decisions toward other individuals in a subconscious way. Implicit bias can be based on descriptors like age, weight, and the subject of this study, race. Research shows that there are real world implications that reflect that strength and preference of an individual’s implicit racial bias. Research has also demonstrated that it is possible to reduce an individual’s implicit racial bias if they are willing and have access to an appropriate intervention. This experiment adapted one such intervention which had successfully reduced implicit racial bias in a Caucasian majority group. Participants in our experiment completed several

Racial bias is still a very active issue in society today. This paper explores the understanding of racial bias in business hiring. This is critical because racial bias continually uniforms businesses in hiring decisions. The prevalence of racial bias in business hiring, potential interventions, and explanations of why this occurs will be explored. How prevalent is racial bias in business hiring today and how can it be mediated?

The one obvious negative effect of the perceptions that we know little about paves the way for stereotypes , ethnocentrism and Prejudice . Stereotypes are the oversimplified ideas about a group of people , Ethnocentrism is the evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture , Prejudice is thoughts and feelings about those discriminated groups . Because all obvious things that we hear about include stigmas like “ All Asians are smart , and all blacks are criminals “ . It is sad that all of these invalidated myths have become common currently because they are seen as the self-evident and the obvious .

I have an interest in how culture, genetics/heredity play a part in the development of an individual’s bias, and the second and third order effects created by said bias. I recently read an article about how multiple species, to include humans, have developed a left-cradling bias when holding their young. Some research attributes this to the specialization of the right hemisphere of the brain as it relates to emotional processing. There are also noted studies that suggest that an individual’s choice of being left or right handed is not actually a choice but more so genetically influenced. When researching some cultural biases, I came across an interesting article regarding how Westerner’s perceive emotions as individual feelings

Bias and stereotyping can both be harmful for self-esteem and the developmental process in children. Bias is not only harmful for the target group since it lowers the self-esteem, but the group who feels superiority over the other is also harmed. The feeling of being superior disconnects a person from reality. Too much of self-esteem reduces the appreciation of others and may even slow down progress for the beholder. Stereotyping creates preconceived notions in the minds of children and adults due to which they fail to see others for what they actually are and rather judge them on the basis of information that is misguided and obsolete. Stereotyping results in developing strong perspectives of people who are different and causes prejudice.