Evaluating impacts on professional practices

Being a recipient of stereotyping and biases can have a devastating toll on an individual.  When I was in college I experienced racism.  I attended a college that was predominately white.  One day I went into the bathroom that I shared with five other women they were all white.  In the bathroom was a large tube of toothpaste sitting on the counter with an even larger toothbrush on the toothpaste was a person in black face and it said combats halitosis.  I was socked I had this sick feeling in my stomach.  I could not believe anyone could be so mean.  The five women I shared the bathroom with always smiled and spoke to me I could not believe one of them had such racist feelings toward me.  That experience coupled with some other similar events caused me to leave that college.

Consequences that children and families with whom I work with might experience due to my experiencing isms in my own life might be a lack of engagement by me.  If I am interfacing with individuals that are white I might become standoffish due to the negative treatment I am experiencing in my own life.  I might view certain groups of people as perpetrators of harm to me and people like me.  I might become evasive toward men because I am experiencing sexism in my life. 

Thankfully I am not experiencing any isms in my life at this time and am able to service the families and children with an open mind and open heart.  I truly want to become an anti-bias teacher because I can see the positive affects this type of teaching will bring to individuals, communities and society as a whole.