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Introduction
studied many populations that are commonly oppressed. Those people groups
include women, individuals who identify as gay and lesbian, residents of the
American people. Each of these people groups must overcome different obstacles
due to their identity. However, the source of those obstacles is the same for each
against the least favored population(s). The first step in eradicating those unjust
behaviors is to identify the one's own bias. To be honest, when I first read the
directions for this paper, I (sarcastically) thought, "This ought to be fun". Those
thoughts aren't to protest against the need for self-awareness. I truly believe that
every client they cross paths with. However, those thoughts are to protest my own
prejudices. I would absolutely love to think that there is no such thing as prejudice,
discrimination, oppression, and so forth. But unfortunately, that's far from the truth.
So, this paper is going to be a painfully honest assessment of my own bias. We all
have them, hidden or not; please consider that before passing judgement.
The people group that I am most biased against is a group that we didn't
discuss in this class. However, it was discussed in a different class; individuals who
commit crimes; especially criminal acts against someone or something that they
see as weaker than themselves. Some examples of these crimes would be rape,
Personal Bias Paper 2
abuse (of a person or animal), neglect (child, elderly, disabled), murder, gang-
related crimes, hate-crimes, and theft (especially theft to support other illegal
actions).
This bias most likely began to form when I was a child. Generally, I was raised
to be a woman who stands up for herself and others in need. My father is a veteran
and at the time, a police officer; my mother had been abused by a few "loved ones"
and refused to allow anyone to harm her again; and my Grandmother wasn't afraid
of anything or anyone, which she had no hesitations in displaying if any harm came
near her family. Specifically, that meant putting the needs of others before your own
wants, respecting elders, and appreciating people who serve to protect and heal our
transgression. My family, like many who live between corn fields and cow pastures,
upheld the ideology that a bullet is much cheaper than a long prison sentence for
specific crimes.
after I graduated high school. Living in a small town, I got to know just about
everyone. It's not hard to do when your high school makes up about a third of the
town and surrounding farms. Choir class was actually pretty popular in my school,
even with the football players, which is where I met and started dating one of those
guys. Nothing really came of the relationship but I'd gotten to know his brother,
Justin, and we'd remained friends afterwards. That was my freshman year of high
school and Justin was a year behind me in school so I'd had about 3 years of day-to-
day small talk with him by the time I'd graduated. A month after Justin graduated,
he was scheduled to go to Basic Training for the Navy. He wanted to follow his
brother who was already a Marine. But three days before shipping out, Justin was
Personal Bias Paper 3
brutally murdered by another person we had all gone to school with. This person
Austin, the murderer, told the courts that he had killed his friend because he
wanted to know what it was like to kill someone. That was his reason. Selfishness.
The selfish desire to do something completely wrong. The defense attorney tried to
rationalize his actions by stating that he wasn't mentally sound. That reasoning was
Questions
Crime at its root is driven by selfishness. With that statement and the
description above, I feel the need to say that I am a rational person. I know that
theft occurs by people who are hungry and need to feed their children. I also know
that murders have occurred by individuals who weren't safe unless that person was
permanently removed from their lives. I'm not talking about those situations. I
strictly mean crimes that are committed only because the criminal wanted
something that they weren't supposed to have, such as the virginity of a child.
There are no extraordinary reasons that can excuse crimes like rape and abuse. I
am personally biased against criminals like this simply because of their choice to
commit these crimes. They chose to put their selfishness before the well-being of
another human being. I have zero respect and a lot of disgust for someone who
chooses to do that.
Social workers are taught and expected to respect and advocate for the rights
of all people. As I'm sure you noticed in the previous paragraph, I don't believe that I
Personal Bias Paper 4
could do that if I were working with criminals like Austin. I'd like to think that I could
force myself to serve them as I'm expected to by the NASW Code of Ethics, but
honestly the only way that I could is if I didn't know what their crimes were. And
assisting them. I can accept that because I don't feel that these criminals deserve to
have anything but their most basic rights protected and even then, I struggle with
those. It isn't morally correct but the way that I see it is that if someone violates the
basic rights of another human being, then why should their rights be protected?
However, I would still observe those rights for them because I have to. Beyond
those rights though, such as delicious meals, television and free college education, I