The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

The incident I would like to describe actually happened today.  I live in a small town that is very predominately Caucasian.  While I was at our local swimming pool, I witnessed an incident that I did not appriove of.  We have two large slides at our pool.  Both slides empty into the same square area of the pool.  The rules of the pool state that you need to swim to the left when coming off the left slide and swim to the right when coming off the right-hand slide.  This is the rule so that swimmers don't cross in front of the path of someone coming off of a slide as it could be dangerous.  However, many children do not remember this and if they are new to the pool, they probably don't realize this as it is not posted anywhere.

I was sitting on the edge of the pool watching my daughter and a friend go down the slides. I had been sitting there quite a while watching children run and make the smae mistake at the slides and usually the guard would just slightly blow their whistle and direct them the correct way.  Well, today, I noticed a little African American girl come off of the left-hand slide and cross in front of the other slide.  My daughter and i visit the pool quite frequently and we have never seen this little girl before.  She, more than likely, didn't know where she was supposed to exit.  What happened next, really upset me.  I watched our pool manager blow her whistle in a very loud, almost angry way at this little girl.  As the little girl exited the pool, the manager got in her face and was very loud and gruff with theis little girl, telling her where she should have exited. The little girl, obviously stunned, just stared at her. So then, the pool manager completely outstepped her boundaries and said, "Do you understand me?" and continued to stay right in the girl's face and repeated that three times until the little girl ran away.  Then, she proceeded to yell at her for running.  Besides being angry over a child being corrected in such a horrible and inappropriate way, I was upset over this little girl being singled out.  Why didn't any of the other children get admonished in that way?

In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

This incident diminished equity in the way that all of the children need to abide by the rules.  However, when i say all of the children, that means no matter what their skin color is.  I felt that this little girl stood out in the crowd due to her skin color and she was easily a target. 

What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

This incident brought up quite a bit of emotions for me.  First, I was angry, just to see a child get yelled at in such a way.  I was mad over the fact that this child was singled out.  I felt protective over her and I wanted to (and should have) come between the pool manager and this little girl. I also felt embarrassed.  Is our town so backward that we pick on people for the color of their skin.  Seriously, I had a hard time believing what I had witnessed.

What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

I'm not sure if there is anything that will change the pool manager's personal biases.  However, i will be calling the head pool manager about this.  Hopefully the manager will talk to this woman about the situation.  What I want to stress to him is that I understand that what the child did was unsafe.  However, I believe that the child was not doing anything more than any other child was doing.  They need to post the rule and unless they see a child willfully disobeying the rule, then there is no need to call any child out in that way.