Prejudice and discrimination are impossible to avoid when living in society. However, you rarely think about them, if you are not a subject of bias. At least, what I can say about myself is that I have never really thought about prejudice and discrimination, their essence, and consequences. This course helped me realize that these phenomena are complicated and versatile. I have learned that they have many levels and can be formulated by the trends in television programs, commercials, music, and cultural developments. Well, I think it might be true because if since childhood we watch television programs that depict discrimination and bias, then we start thinking of them as of a normal way of building relations with people from outside our group.
Nevertheless, I believe that media culture is not the initial source of imposing belief that treating those who are somehow not like you differently is normal. What is the most robust influential factor is the process of socialization within your group. As a kid, you start it within your family. However, growing up in a family that criticizes discrimination does not necessarily mean that you will become an unbiased adult. What matters is the further process of socialization when you become a member of a bigger group that consists of people with various ethnic, social, religious, and other backgrounds. Seeing the difference every day, you start thinking differently than when you were a part of your small social group – family. At least, it was like that for me.
When I was in a family, I was completely unbiased because I always saw people who had similar backgrounds. When watching TV, I rarely thought that programs and commercials portray differences between people with different backgrounds; I just enjoyed the process. However, when I became a part of a larger group, I started noticing that I like people who are similar to my family members more than others who differ from me in some ways. Since then, I remarked that media also plays a role in this process showing differences between men and women, stressing on racial and class segregation. That said, what I believe is the source of bias is the subconscious desire to be involved with the members of your group that becomes stronger when you see that it is highlighted on television that aims at shaping particular attitudes to the member outside the group.
Prejudice and discrimination are just one side of the process of socialization. Another side of it is acknowledging that they exist and influence other people, trying to understand what makes you biased and what are the prejudices you have. What I can say about myself is that being in a group while studying the nature of bias and discrimination was a useful experience. It helped me become somewhat less biased because I saw people with different backgrounds gathered in one group.
In fact, I realized that we all are similar because we all have some prejudices and feel uncomfortable when sharing our feelings and thoughts. I believe that the outcomes of the course might have been different if I were not to share my feelings with the group or completed the assignment on my own because constant interactions with different people helped me reduce the prejudices, and sometime later the feeling of discomfort vanished, as I realized that I can trust these people and bias cannot be justified.