Will was playing tennis at a local park – something that he does on a regular basis. It was late at night, and he saw a group of young black men walking down the street. These young men could not have been older than 20, and they looked to be still in high school. They were walking with grocery bags, undoubtedly procured from the store just down the street. Because Will was playing alone, he was solo in his thoughts as the young men made their way down the sidewalk that ran parallel to the tennis facility.
At this moment, Will had a few different thoughts and emotions. He immediately felt fear. He was “trapped,” so to speak, in this tennis facility, and he thought that the young men might have been a danger to him. As the young men came closer, Will got more and more nervous. Finally, one of the young men spoke up, saying, “Hey man, nice shoes.” Will looked down at his feet, remembering that he was wearing bright yellow tennis shoes that appeared similar to a highlighter. They could be seen at night and from afar, and he had been very proud of the shoes when he bought them. “Thanks man,” he responded nervously. Another in the group said, “We going to be seeing you on ESPN anytime soon?”
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Reflection Paper About Subconsciousness".
At this moment, Will allowed himself to laugh. He was more comfortable, of course, and he said with confidence, “No, not anytime soon, man.” The young men walked past, quite obviously doing no harm. While Will had felt that they were dangerousness, those men had no idea that they were dangerous. They were just going about their business, of course, in a place they were legally able to be. In fact, the tennis court was close to their neighborhood. Will had been the outsider in this setting if anyone had.
Immediately, Will began to chastise himself. He had stereotyped the young men based upon nothing but their appearance. After all, he is a big guy, in good shape, and capable of defending himself if necessary. He had no reason to be in fear other than the fact that he had pre-made perceptions of what these young men might have done. He asked himself some questions in that moment. Why did I feel that way? What caused me to make those assumptions? Is it fair that I was scared of men, and would I have been scared of a group of white teenagers? He recognized that in truth, he would have responded very differently if the group had been young white men. He also understood that his first reaction was a part of his sub-conscious. He had not consciously chosen to be fearful. Rather, he was responding to the way he had been programmed, either by family, by the media, or some combination of forces.
With this experience, Will recognized that even he, who cares about race and is conscious of racism, is not immune to some prejudice. He realized that while he cannot control his subconscious, he has the ability to control his response. This led Will to think that perhaps the best option in these cases would be to chastise his sub-conscious, correct it. He realized that he may never be able to shake the sub-conscious response to young black men, but if, over time, he works hard to correct his thinking, then he may be able to more effectively deal with people. This was an extremely eye-opening experience in which his stereotyping did not create a negative outcome, but it certainly had an effect on Will.
- Wilson II, C. C., Gutiérrez, F., & Chao, L. (2012). Racism, Sexism, and the Media: Multicultural Issues Into the New Communications Age. SAGE Publications.
