Week 6: Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression - A Children's Example

The blog assignment this week in Perspectives on Diversity and Equity includes the following questions for reflection:

• 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.
• In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?
• What feelings did this incident bring up for you?
• What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

This week I am going to Disney World and so as I read this question, I thought about the fictional children’s movie character, Dumbo the Elephant. Dumbo had extremely large ears for his size and was discriminated against, and exploited. I remember when Dumbo lost his mother and was made to perform as an act in the circus. He was ridiculed, ostracized, and exploited because he was different, leaving him sad, isolated, and insignificant. I believe that when children and families are subjected to the same, they feel similarly. I know I do.

So, in their early childhood’s, children are learning about diversity, oppression, prejudice, and discrimination. Fortunately, a positive lesson that differences can be challenging, but positive are also conveyed to children in the media. As parents, early childhood professionals, and adults, we have a responsibility to keep that message present during their kids’ upbringings.

By the end of the movie, Dumbo’s extra large ears were recognized as special, beneficial, and beautiful once their capabilities were recognized and respected. I believe that though it is unfair, the differences in people must in essence prove themselves before earning the common courtesy, respect they deserve!

Quotation from the movie:

Timothy Q. Mouse: You all oughta be ashamed of yourselves. A bunch of big guys like you, pickin' on a poor little orphan like him. Suppose you was torn away from your mother when you was just a baby. Nobody to tuck you in at nights. No warm, soft, caressin' trunk to snuggle inta. How would you like being left out alone, in a cold, cruel, heartless woild? And why? I ask ya, why? Just because he's got those big ears, they call him a freak. The laughing stock of the coicus. And when his mother tried to protect him, they threw her into the clink. And on top of that, they made him a clown! Socially he's washed up! Aw, but what's the use of talkin' to you cold-hearted boids? Go ahead! Have your fun! Laugh at him! Kick him now that he's down! Go on! We don't care.