People are not free of biases. I can try to be as open minded as possible, but there will always be some lingering bias there, as a lot of bias is subconscious (think of microaggressions). So, reflecting on some of my biases can help me think about the way I act towards certain people. <span data-ccp-props=”{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}”> </span>
A lot of the bias I have is internalized against myself, which I sometimes direct out to random strangers in the form of thoughts. For example, many times I have rode the train or the bus and saw another fat person. The very first thought that I have is “Oh my god, they’re so fat. Holy shit.” This is because I was conditioned from very early in my childhood that fat = bad. I remember having to weigh myself for a fitness test in 1<span data-fontsize=”11″>st</span> or 2<span data-fontsize=”11″>nd</span> grade, and I felt ashamed that I weighed more than almost everybody in my class. I remember my mom, sister, grandmother, and cousins saying that they were going to take me to the gym from an early age. All of these cemented the internalized fatphobia I learned, and I was not really able to start unlearning it until well into my teenage years. Even so, I am still not done doing so.<span data-ccp-props=”{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}”> </span>
Some biases arise out of a need to protect oneself. One of my biases Is my distrust of the police. For many years my community (and by extension my family and myself) do not trust the police, and for good reason; they have been known to target Black and Latinx people more often, and there are too many cases of people getting killed by police officers for no reason. I am often extra careful when I see a cop car or when I walk by the police station. When my mom gets drunk and threatens to call the police (for whatever silly reason), I get scared. I woman I know tells me “Don’t tell the popo”. It is probably a joke, but it does have a grain of truth: when a community does not trust the police due to high levels of police brutality, they tend to not want to interact with them. <span data-ccp-props=”{"201341983":0,"335559731":720,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}”> </span>
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