Jessica Zhou, Period 6, 3/24/23

 Thanks to my merciless consumption of videos and other media I’ve managed to keep up with the latest news such as social movements across the world, wars, social issues, and more. One word that I do notice cropping up a lot recently though is the word “privilege”. Many influencers decide to discuss and argue about it, their opinions ranging from “We need to address this by accommodating the group that’s underprivileged” to “Why are people even talking about privilege, I’m sick of people making this an olympics to see who’s more oppressed.” I used to be able to ignore these topics and avoided the content all together, but now, based on my experiences and just what has happened during the past three years has allowed me to form my own conclusion. Humans are obviously biased. They all have their own strong opinions so they can’t help it if they judge someone based on appearance. This may apply to race, gender, sexuality, body size/shape, and so on. Because of this, some people get more opportunity or a higher social status than others. 

The issue of racial profiling and the connection to inequity rings especially true based on my experiences. For example, there was a discussion about a new tenant in space next door, and one of the candidates was an Indian man. The concern several people raised at the table was whether or not the man would "stink up the house with curry." This is the type of racism that permeates my family and many other immigrants towards people of different cultures. Growing up as an Chinese American, I've had my fair share of racist experiences, and I find it ironic that minority groups are doing the same thing they complain about in America to others. We should be building each other's communities up, not tearing them down. I learned in sociology class that racism and stereotypes can stem from ignorance between groups of different cultures and their limited experiences with each other. Such dynamics can continue the vicious cycle of racism and fuel the "it's us against them" mentality. 

There’s no solution for problems like inequity and bias.  We may not be able to control our initial thoughts or opinions but we are able to control what we say and do. This is not to say I don’t have my own faults. I do. I’m only human. I make assumptions and judge people sometimes based on appearance. I don’t think the problem lays in our initial thoughts, I think the problem lies in how we choose to respond. The things we say or do will reflect the type of person we choose to be. Now by keeping this in mind, I’ve managed to assess and reflect on my thoughts whenever I judge someone based on their appearance. Only by acknowledging my own biases and letting go of them have I managed to grow and learn